The Journey of Fire's Song
by Firestorm Nauralagos
Summary: Number 2 in the Firesong Saga. An old evil has struck out with surprising strength, scattering the wizards stationed on Celestia and forcing the Headmaster to send in reinforcements. Alexandra must make a decision: Either she will risk the lives of herself and her friends once more, or she will leave the Spiral to its fate ...
1. Chapter 1: Home

_**A/N:** I have returned! xD Welcome to** The Journey of Fire's Song**, story 2 in the Firesong series. :)_

_This story will feature Alex as the main character, of course, and all of the main O.C.'s from the last story: Erica, Sabrina, Heather, Evan, Destiny, Tristan, Kestrel, Chelsea and Ashley. There will also be eight new O.C.'s, who have already been submitted, and possibly a surprise appearance by someone whose name I can't reveal at the moment. You'll have to guess. ;) *Note: If the owners of Chelsea or Ashley would NOT like their characters to return in this story, please let me know and I will take them out. Sorry, brother dearest; you don't get a say about Evan. I stole his soul. XD_

_**The Journey of Fire's Song** will take place mostly in the Morganthe arc (Celestia, Zafaria, Avalon, Azteca and whatever new world comes out next.) This story may or may not be as dark as the first one; there's even a possibility that it will be darker. *Evil laugh* It also takes place ONE YEAR AFTER THE END OF THE LAST STORY._

_**Many thanks to my awesomesauce beta reader, Rebecca Ripple! :D**_

_**Disclaimer: *Is concentrating* Maybe if I concentrate hard enough … I'll make myself the owner of Wizard101! *Keeps concentrating* ...nope. It didn't work. *Randomly pulls out saxophone and starts playing it* Wait a second … I don't even PLAY the saxophone! How does THAT happen? O_O**_

_All right, I think those are all of my announcements… do enjoy **The Journey of Fire's Song**! :D_

Sabrina was distracted. I could see it in her eyes, in the way she moved, in the cards she played. The Theurgist was making errors every couple of rounds, and she only expressed that they'd been mistakes with a slight frown of annoyance. She barely reacted when I cast her least favorite spell on her, and the moment the duel was over, I approached my rival to confront her.

"What's up with you? You've been acting really weird lately," I told Sabrina. She shrugged halfheartedly.

"I dunno. Tired, I guess." I raised an eyebrow.

"You're lying." She let out an over-exaggerated sigh and gave me a disdainful sneer.

"Fine. You caught me," the Theurgist replied dryly. "I've been thinking about what Moira said when we were fighting Malistaire … She said that she knew how to free my mom." I frowned.

"You trust Moira? I mean, I know she changed and all, but … well, it's just not likely, Sabrina." I shrugged. "Sorry to burst your bubble." Sabrina shook her head.

"No, you're probably right. Necromancers." She snorted and walked away, shaking her head and muttering to herself. I watched as she climbed onto her white mare's back and galloped away, and then went to retrieve Bat. I found a black rose and a note pinned to my saddle, and grinned when I saw the signature: _Luke Shadowstorm._

I had met my boyfriend almost a year ago while we were dueling. We were each fighting for the title of Warlord, and for the first time in years I had been evenly matched. He was a Necromancer and a secondary Storm wizard, and had beaten me in that duel. Needless to say, I had demanded a rematch, and when I continued to lose, I knew that change was in order. Ice wasn't cutting it any longer, so I insisted that Luke teach me Divination. In return, I had trained him in Thaumaturgy, and we were both stronger because of our third schools. Most of our more recent duels had ended in draws, and I had required a different dueling partner to make Warlord.

_Meet me at the Royal Museum of Marleybone at 6:30. I've got something to show you,_ the note said. I glanced at my watch. Only 3:30. I decided to head to the Commons and work on my Advanced Necromancy homework.

It was a normal day in the peaceful Commons. Other students were milling about, chatting, exchanging items, studying and doing homework. There was a quiet bustle that always made me feel right at home. A few novice Necromancers spotted me and waved.

"Hi, Alexandra!" They called to me. I waved back and grinned before tossing my backpack onto the ground beside a tree. After digging through the overfilled, black bag, I located my half-finished essay on reanimation of corpses and the book that I was using for research: _Ghouls, Zombies, Wraiths and Spectres_ by Marcia Darkwind- my old friend and a former Necromancer. My friend had written several books that were now on the Necromancy reading list. Just as I had begun to read, someone spoke, interrupting my thoughts.

"Hey, Alex! Could you tell us about your quest again?" I looked up. Four of the novice Necromancers stood in a line, staring at me expectantly. I rolled my eyes.

"Really? Again? Guys, I hate to crush your little happy moods, but I'm trying to write a Necromancy essay." I waved the small stack of lined paper at them.

"Oh … could you tell the story later, when you're done with your essay?" My mind drifted back nearly a year, back to Dragonspyre and to the top of the mountain. I remembered the look on Moira's face as she died, and the blood on Arthas' athame after he stabbed Malistaire. I could see the tears on Heather's face again. I felt a sharp stab of pain. I shivered. "Alex?"

"What?" I snapped. The four novices recoiled suddenly, and I realized that I was practically snarling at them. "Uh … sorry. If I can, I'll tell you that story some other time." I ran a hand through my hair. "Just … you might want to go. Isn't Beginning Necromancy starting in a minute or so?" They looked at each other, looked back at me, and then ran towards the waterfall and the entrance to Nightside. I almost grinned, remembering the warning threats Dworgyn always made at the beginning of each new year to discourage tardiness. I doubted that he would ever go through with them, but the novices didn't know that.

"You have way too much fun doing that," a familiar voice said. I glanced to my left. Heather stood a short distance away, smiling in amusement.

"Doing what?"

"Scaring n-novices," she laughed. "Beginning Necromancy d-doesn't start for f-five minutes. You know how I kn-now?" I shook my head. "It's the s-same time as G-grandmaster Thaumaturgy. I have to keep rem-minding Sadie when she's r-reading; she never remembers to keep t-track of the t-time."

"Well, congratulations. How's she been doing, anyways?" I asked, gesturing for the Conjurer to take a seat. She smiled brightly.

"Great! She and N-nolan and I went for a w-walk this morning, and we helped her s-study for her f-final exam. It's in three w-weeks."

"Really? Wow. They've got it early this year."

"Well, P-professor Greyrose doesn't like to d-do that specific t-test any time after M-may; warm w-weather disrupts their s-spells."

"I don't remember having my colossus test in May." I frowned.

"Her test is f-for Thaumaturgy in g-general, silly! She can't b-become a Grandmaster in June if she d-doesn't p-pass this test."

"I'm sure she'll do fine," I declared, pulling my water bottle from my backpack. "If anyone can pass that test, it's Sadie Rosegem. She's like a young Erica Bluestone." We both laughed, thinking of our bizarrely studious friend.

"So, g-guess what?"

"What?" I asked, taking a sip of the water.

"Nolan asked me t-to go to the festival next w-week. As in, he asked m-me on a d-date," Heather said, smiling wider. I choked on my water, which I quickly spat back into the water bottle.

"He asked you WHAT?" My friend beamed.

"Isn't it so s-sweet?"

"No! No, that's not sweet! It's disgusting! How could you trust that jerk?"

"Come on, Alex! How m-many times do I have to t-tell you that he's ch-changed?" I frowned.

"How many times do I have to reply that _I do not believe you?_ He practically tortured Brooke for most of novice year; one does not simply forgive Nolan Stormgate for a crime like that!" The Transcendent Conjurer rolled her eyes.

"Fine. Don't b-believe me."

"You said no, right?" Heather looked horrified.

"Alex! No, I d-didn't say no! I s-said I would g-go with him!" I made a face.

"Whatever. If he hurts you, though, don't expect me to comfort you." I paused for a moment, thinking. "You know, I'll probably just beat him up." Her gentle smile returned.

"You'd make a g-good older brother, you kn-know?"

-V-

It was already dark in Marleybone when I arrived at the museum. A tall wizard dressed entirely in black robes stood with his back to me, inspecting a painting from Avalon. He turned his head slightly as I approached, fixing his brown eyes on mine. He grinned.

"You know, the Avalonians were known for having many famous painters. This picture of the Wyrd was done by an anonymous artist many years ago. They're still trying to figure out who created it," he said, glancing back at the painting.

"Fascinating. So, what's up? Any particular reason we're meeting here?" I asked, nudging his arm gently. He shrugged.

"It's dark." It was a typical "Luke answer." Short and rather vague. "There also happens to be a new restaurant just around the corner. I hope you haven't had dinner yet." My boyfriend smirked and headed towards the exit, grabbing my hand as he passed me.

The restaurant he had spoken of was indeed new, and featured Avalonian food. "What a coincidence: we meet in the Avalon section of the museum, and you take me to an Avalonian restaurant," I mused jokingly. "That's not at all like you, Luke." He laughed.

"You know, Alex, you really need to work on your sarcasm. One of these days I might actually think you're serious." I simply grinned as I stabbed a piece of lettuce from my salad. A letter dropped onto the table in front of me, and I looked up in confusion. A familiar white owl was perched on the windowsill, staring down at me.

"Delta? What are you doing here?" Gamma the Owl's younger brother didn't normally leave Wizard City. He ruffled his feathers and took off in the direction of the Spiral Door.

"You might want to open that. If Delta troubled his lazy backside to bring it to you, it's gotta be important," Luke said in a low voice. I made a face at him as I ripped open the envelope, removing a neatly folded piece of paper.

_Young Miss Firesong:_

_I am in need of your assistance with a rather urgent problem. If you could visit my office as soon as you are available, I would greatly appreciate it. And please, come quickly. It is an issue that requires immediate action._

_Sincerely,_

_Headmaster Ambrose_

I looked up at Luke in surprise. "There's some kind of problem… he wants to see me as soon as possible." His expression became one of concern.

"We'd better hurry up and finish here, then. Whatever's going on, it must be serious if he needs your help." I nodded in agreement.

-V-

_She was waking. The pain in her head was overwhelming, and she could barely see straight. She couldn't sit up. She couldn't speak. She was having trouble breathing- but she was waking._

_**A/N:** Sorry if my somewhat romantic scene sucked; that's not exactly my best genre. O_o_


	2. Chapter 2: News

_**A/N: **__Later in this chapter, you will notice that I bold the word "whisper" several times. I did that to differentiate a regular whisper from a magical whisper, like the ones in the game._

_Thanks for the reviews, scarletfireblaze, Lord Energy and NightSkyWolves! :D In response …_

**_NightSkyWolves_**_: If you want to, feel free. :)_

I immediately traveled to Wizard City when dinner was over. Luke said that he had to do something at home, but he would meet me outside the Headmaster's office. I tapped on the door a few times, and then paced back and forth while I waited for Headmaster Ambrose to answer. He pulled open the door a moment later.

"Excellent, you came immediately. Thank you, Miss Firesong." I nodded to him.

"Of course I came. Headmaster Ambrose, what's going on? Your letter … did something happen?" The elderly man sighed and closed his eyes in a pained expression.

"You had best come inside, Alexandra." He took a step back and allowed me to enter, and then shut the door behind me. "Have a seat." He waved his staff, and a chair appeared in front of his desk. He slowly moved around the large desk and sat down in his large armchair, sifting through a stack of papers that littered the surface. I waited silently while the Headmaster selected three sheets of paper.

"What's that?"

"This is a report from Celestia. After the recent tragedy that occurred there, nearly all of our stationed wizards have fled. They refuse to continue working in the field while there is still a risk."

"What … recent tragedy?" I asked slowly. "Headmaster, what happened in Celestia?" He frowned.

"I am surprised you have not heard … well, I suppose I ought to start at the beginning." He took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair. "Just yesterday, a small team of our highest level wizards was assigned to search a recently discovered hideout for Morganthe's forces. Four Archmage wizards were sent into that building … Archmages, Alexandra. Four of the most powerful wizards in the entire Spiral. Very early this morning, I received news from the Celestia Base Camp. One of the Archmages has fallen. Two others barely escaped alive, and without urgent medical help they might have died as well. Only a single Conjurer made it out in one piece, but he took a poisoned wound to the hand." I stared at the Headmaster in shocked silence.

"How? How did Morganthe manage to single handedly crush four Archmages?" I gasped.

"We do not know much. All the news I was given was that a second wizard showed up to aide the Umbra Queen, a wizard with a strange new power."

"Who was killed?" I asked in a barely audible tone. I wasn't sure I wanted to know …

"I doubt you'll know him … the boy's name was Christopher Mythdream. He was 22 years old and one of the most promising Conjurers in Ravenwood." _Mythdream. _Where had I heard that name before? "You may know his younger cousin, Sabrina Jadeleaf." The news hit me like a ton of bricks.

"No. You don't mean … Sabrina's _cousin?_"

"Yes. Christopher's twin brother Tyler is doing well, but unfortunately, Ceren Nightchant and Michelle Spellstone have been hospitalized with potentially fatal wounds. Tyler's hand wound has grown more serious by the hour, and the Theurgists are doing everything they can to help him." I barely heard as the older man continued to speak. Sabrina's cousins. Destiny's boyfriend. Ashley's sister. They were all hurt because of Morganthe's growing evil.

"Someone has to stop her!"

"Yes, indeed. That is why I have asked you to come, Miss Firesong."

"What do you want me to do?" I asked suspiciously. "I mean, if four _Archmages _can't take her down-"

"Good heavens, child! I am not asking you to go after Morganthe herself. No, that would be suicide after what we have just witnessed with those poor wizards. I am simply asking that you bring your friends to Celestia and aide the wizards still working there. Only thirteen remain after what happened yesterday. Thirteen, and most are mere Legendaries. A few are Grandmasters, and three among them are Transcendent. That will not be enough to protect Celestia from Morganthe's evil grip."

"I …" If my friends and I were to travel to Celestia, we would be there until Morganthe was dead or defeated. That could be months- no, that could be _years. _Wizard City and Celestia had been fighting the Umbra Queen since before I was even born! This plan of the Headmaster's sounded an awful lot like he was sending me and my group of friends on a second long quest. The image of Donna's broken body flashed through my mind. "I'll have to think about it," I finally blurted out. "I can't just make a decision like this in a minute."

"I understand, Miss Firesong. Please, though, decide soon. The fate of Celestia may be in your hands." I nodded dumbly and stood, backing towards the door. I saw Brooke's pained expression as she died. I turned and ran from the Headmaster's Office.

Luke was waiting for me just outside the building.

"Hey," he called, waving. When my boyfriend noticed my expression, his smile disappeared. "Alex, what's wrong?" I shook my head, holding up my hand for him to wait a second. I was still attempting to wrap my mind around the information I'd been given; I wasn't quite ready to share it yet. _Sabrina's cousins. Destiny's boyfriend. Ashley's sister. _They were in trouble because of Morganthe's work in Celestia. _Donna. Brooke. Moira. Dad. Malistaire. _Five lives had been lost during the last big quest. If I agreed to carry out the Headmaster's task, there was no telling how many more would die to stop the Umbra Queen. Luke waited patiently while I attempted to grasp what I had just heard.

"You've heard of Morganthe." He nodded.

"Everyone over level thirty has heard of her."

"You know about her attacks on Celestia."

"Yep."

"She killed an Archmage yesterday. Two more are in the hospital, maybe dying. The fourth one is in the hospital with a worsening poisoned wound to his hand."

"What?"

"Ambrose wants me and my friends to go to Celestia and help the thirteen wizards that decided to stay, despite the danger. Most of them fled after what happened to those four, Luke! There are a handful of Legendaries, Grandmasters and Transcendents that are holding Celestia, and if Morganthe decides that she wants them out …"

"They'll be out," Luke finished my thought. I nodded.

"Yeah. Normally I'd have no problem going to help, but … well, the way he said it … it sounds like the Headmaster wants me to go on another quest to stop this witch." I didn't have to add anything. My boyfriend knew all about the quest, and about the horrors my friends and I had witnessed while we were fighting Malistaire. "I can't do it again, Luke. I can't drag my friends into even more danger … there's no telling how many of them might die this time. Morganthe is a thousand times more dangerous than Malistaire, and she's got a partner. I don't know …"

"You know what I think?" He interrupted, turning so he was facing me squarely. "I think that to protect the Spiral, sometimes sacrifices have to be made. If you do this, some people are going to die. That much is obvious. However, think about it this way: let's say you don't go to Celestia, and those thirteen wizards are left alone to hold that world. Your friends will be safe for a while, but once Morganthe kills those thirteen, she has nothing holding her back from taking other worlds- for instance, Wizard City. Everyone here will be slaughtered. There won't be anyone left to protect, Alex." He paused for a minute, as though he was trying to decide what to say. "The Spiral needs protection, and you're the best one to do that," he finished. I still hesitated.

_Sabrina's cousins. Destiny's boyfriend. Ashley's sister. _"Okay. I'll do it," I finally whispered. "I've gotta ask my other friends, though …"

"And I'm coming, too." I started to protest, but he covered my mouth with his hand. "No. No arguing. I'm coming with you," he told me firmly. Slowly, I nodded in agreement.

"Fine. Can you meet me at the library at ten tomorrow? We'll have to do some research on Celestia before we leave."

"Yeah. I'll be there. Go home and get some sleep, Alex. You're gonna need it, I'm sure." He grinned and gave me a small wave before disappearing in a puff of black sparks. I almost smiled as I called Bat. The black dragon appeared in front of me a moment later.

"Hey, girl," I whispered to her, patting her snout. She snorted smoke and shook her head. "Ready to go home?" The dragon nodded once, and I swung onto her back. Bat took to the air, flying into the night sky.

-V-

"I'm home," I called as I pushed open the door of my Death House.

"Hey, Alex!" Kestrel called from the top of the stairs. "Arthas is outside; I think he said that he was going to check on his plants."

"Got it." I tossed my book bag and hat onto the floor. Kestrel took one look at my face and immediately knew that something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" She asked, running down the stairs. "Alex? Did something happen?" I quietly explained the Celestia situation to the other Necromancer.

"So, what do you say? Will you help?" I asked. Kestrel nodded immediately.

"If you need my help saving the Spiral, I'd be more than happy to join you," she told me. "I can go talk to Arthas, if you want."

"Please do. The less people I have to explain this to, the better." Without waiting for her response, I climbed the wide stairs to my bedroom. My black cat, Shadow, was curled up on her rug. I assumed that she was napping and tried not to disturb her. There was a stack of paper on my desk, but I had to search for a pen in the drawer. When I finally found one, I started writing down a list of names.

_Evan. Destiny. _They were more like my brother and sister than friends, I mused. _Erica. Heather. _As an afterthought, I added the name _Nolan_, although I rolled my eyes. _Ashley. Sabrina. _Hopefully they'd both be up for the task, although Ashley might prefer to stay with her sister in the hospital. _Chelsea. Tristan. _After a year of hard work, they had risen to Grandmaster status. Both were deep into their studies, but I hoped they'd be willing to come along. I stared at the list for a minute, closed my eyes and focused on the face of each receiver.

_If you haven't already heard, there's a problem in Celestia. Four Archmages were defeated in battle by Morganthe, and most of the other wizards fled to Wizard City. The Headmaster asked me to bring reinforcements to Celestia. If you're willing to come along, start researching Morganthe and Celestia. Come to my house in two days at noon, _I **whispered **to them. Almost immediately, Ashley **whispered **back:

_You'd better believe I'll be there. That witch is gonna pay for what she did. _Sabrina's **whisper **arrived seconds later and held similar content, although there was a bit more profanity. Heather's stuttery **whisper, **along with Nolan's and Evan's, were next. Just minutes later, the other agreeing **whispers **arrived. I had my group, but how many of us would return?


	3. Chapter 3: Return

_**A/N: **__Thanks for all the reviews! :) _

_**A lot of you mentioned Bat and her "attack" problem;**_ _I actually forgot about that until I was almost done with DoFS, and when I remembered it, I was planning to take it out in the rewrites. I'll put up a poll instead, which will be up until the end of the month. Let me know what you think I should do. _

_**In response to le reviews …**_

_**NightSkyWolves: **__Ooh, you're writing a story? :D I will be sure to read it when it's published! :)_

_**Hawkstar: **__That's an interesting idea … I might have to kidnap it. xD _

_**DeathySophia: **__There shall be much more tragedy before this story is over … mwahaha! I've actually got what I hope is a good way to handle all the new characters (I've got 26 new characters, and then there are the NPC's and my own characters ...O_O) so I hopefully won't get too stressed out over that XD _

_**anthonysupericewizard: **__Oh, trust me, there shall be death. *Evil grin* There is always death. *Evil-er laugh* _

_**SuperYuuki: **__I'm sure you'll enjoy this chapter, then ..._

Luke and I spent several hours at the library the next day, searching for anything of importance. I was standing over a table, staring down at a massive book on evil wizards and feeling too restless to sit.

"Well, this certainly sounds pleasant," Luke said dryly, tapping a page of the thin book he held. I moved behind him to look over his shoulder. "Listen to this: 'The ancient Celestians had a special affinity for violent battles, which were often held as entertainment in peacetimes. The great leaders would sometimes start wars with one another for the sole purpose of amusing themselves, and many of the battles would take place right in the main courtyards of palaces- directly below the royal family's bedroom windows, where they could safely view the show.'" He set the book down.

"Weren't they just the sweetest apples in the basket," I remarked sarcastically, returning to the page of my book. "This doesn't have a lot on Morganthe, unfortunately. There's mostly just some stuff on her past. She was born in Zafaria, but she spent most of her childhood in Avalon, where she trained in magic with Headmaster Ambrose and King Artorius himself."

"That's useful. We can ask the Headmaster about Zafaria's defenses, then, and see if he can strengthen them," my boyfriend pointed out. "She might want to go home at some point, and then we can be ready for her."

"True. There's nothing here about Celestia, though, except for this: 'Morganthe, the self-proclaimed 'Umbra Queen,' has been causing trouble for those in Celestia for many years. Her goals there are uncertain.' How the heck is THAT supposed to help us?" I slammed the book shut. "This is ridiculous. We've been here for five hours, and there's nothing of importance here at all!"

"Why don't we check out a few books and go read them in the Commons? The fresh air might help us concentrate," he suggested, closing the history book and adding it to the growing stack of Celestia books.

"Fine." I rolled my eyes, picked up four of the books and headed up to the circulation desk to check them out.

"My, my. You seem to have developed quite an interest in Celestia lately, Miss Firesong!" Harold Argleston commented as he recorded the books. "Does it have anything to do with that recent attack by Morganthe, by any chance?"

"Actually, yeah. My friends and I are heading there as reinforcements," I told him. The librarian could be trusted; he wouldn't spill the beans to half the city. Boris Tallstaff, however … I wouldn't trust the nosy journalist as far as I could throw a boulder. The Diviner was nowhere to be found, though, so I continued. "Thirteen wizards stayed in Celestia after the attack, and the Headmaster wants the fortifications to be stronger."

"It really is such a shame, what happened to those youngsters," the dog sighed. "I do hope the remaining three will be alright sooner or later."

"Preferably sooner rather than later," I remarked, picking up my stack of books. "Thanks, Mr. Argleston."

Luke and I headed out of the library with our arms full of books. In all ten of them, however, I wasn't sure we'd find anything useful. "Knowing Erica, she probably borrowed all the useful books already," I commented to my boyfriend as we walked. He smirked.

"Nah. She probably owns them."

"Or she has them memorized," I chuckled. "So, what are we gonna do about this quest thing?" Luke frowned.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens, and then go along with it," he finally answered. "Don't worry about it too much- not until we get to Celestia, anyways. Your friends will be over tomorrow, and we can all figure out how to attack this."

"Sounds good."

"I wonder how the three Archmages are doing."

"I just heard from Ashley a few hours ago. Ceren is in a coma, but he's stable. Michelle's conscious from time to time, but apparently she's got some internal bleeding in her chest. The doctors are trying to keep it from getting to her lungs; if they don't fix the bleeding fast, she'll drown on her own blood." I grimaced at the thought. "I haven't heard much about Tyler except that he's still in the hospital, and he is steaming mad. If he wasn't locked into his hospital room with his wand and cards confiscated, he would probably have already go back to Celestia to attack Morganthe."

"Damn! She sounds a lot less dangerous in stories!" A voice spoke up from behind us, and I spun around. Time seemed to freeze. I barely noticed as the books toppled out of my arms. _She _was there. Her robes were tattered and scorched. In some places, the red and white patches were stained black with soot. Her hair was a tangled mess, and she'd lost a lot of weight. The girl I'd known had become a gaunt, pale remnant of what she'd been before, but that smirk was still there, just like the day we'd left her for dead. Moira Moonchaser crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at my expression.

"You didn't _really _think I was dead, did you?" She laughed. "It takes more than a crappy Necromancy spell to get rid of me."

"How-what-why-" I sputtered, trying to string the words together in my head. I saw her lying dead on the stone floor. I saw her eyes close, and I could almost hear her last words to me: "_Kick his fat ass for me, will you?" _"You had no heartbeat!" I finally got the words out.

"Damn, Firesong. You must have been really concerned!" Moira laughed. "That's the only way you were badly enough out of it to not notice a heartbeat!" Luke stood silently, watching the scene unfolding in front of him. I had told my boyfriend about Moira's death, of course, but he wouldn't recognize her on sight and probably had no idea who I was talking to.

"Why were you gone for so long, if you were still alive?" I asked faintly. She rolled her eyes.

"You see, Firesong, the thought of actually being _friends _with you …" she grimaced. "That was too weird a thought to consider, so I stayed out of the way for a while. I figured that you'd want to have some time to yourself without having to deal with me every single day."

"Is that the serious response or the Moira response?" Her smirk grew.

"Both." I shook my head, exasperated.

"Don't make me wish you had stayed gone," I told her dryly, stooping to collect my fallen books. "So ... uh ... " I paused. What to say to someone that had been dead up until a few minutes ago? "Do you want to come back to my house? Arthas and Kestrel are there; at least one of those two will want to see you." I wasn't sure about Kestrel. The unpredictable Necromancer was just as likely to attack Moira as she was to welcome her, but Arthas had definitely missed her.

"Sure, I guess. It's not like I've got anywhere else to go." She laughed, but I thought I heard a trace of bitterness in her voice.

"Didn't you have somewhere to stay other than the Crown of Fire?" I asked her.

"Nope. I stayed in the Dragonspyre Academy dorms until I quit school, and by that point Malistaire was already turning- er, he was already working on his plan." She changed her wording hastily, but the damage had been done. I glared at her.

"_He wasn't evil,_" I snapped, snatching up the last of my books and storming off in the direction of the Spiral Door. Luke quickly caught up to me.

"Moira Moonchaser, huh?" He said in a low voice. "She's not quite what I pictured …"

"Yeah? Well, the last time I saw her, she was perfectly healthy- well, besides the whole 'dead' thing, anyways."

"Hey, Alex … I'm sorry, okay? I wasn't trying to be a bitch," the girl in question said, appearing beside me.

"If you don't want to look any worse, I suggest you shut up," I growled, clutching my books tighter. Moira did so, surprisingly. As we stepped into the Spiral Chamber, I strode towards the door, brushing aside the younger wizards that were in my way. The door slammed open, and I stormed through the portal and into my front yard. The other two followed me, and both remained silent. When we reached the scarlet door, I had nearly calmed down.

"Nice timing," Kestrel called when I pushed open the front door and stepped inside. "We're almost finished making lunch."

"I hope there's enough for two extra people," I replied, heading to the living room to drop off my books.

"Did some of the others come with you?"

"Kind of…" I said slowly, glancing at Moira. The three of us stepped into the dining room, where Arthas was setting the table.

"Hello, Alex," he said softly, glancing towards us. The Theurgist froze, staring straight at Moira. For a long moment he just stared at her.

"Well, did you miss me or not?" She asked, grinning. Arthas slowly reached out to touch her arm, as if he was making sure that Moira was real, and then he burst into tears, hugging her tightly. The albino Necromancer smiled slowly- not her usual smirk, but a happy, almost content smile that looked strangely out of place on her.

"Please, Lady Moira … don't ever do that to me again," Arthas whispered. I glanced over at Luke, who shrugged.

"What's going on?" Kestrel asked suddenly, stopping as she entered the room and saw Moira. "You're dead!"

"Oh, gee, I guess I never got that memo," Moira replied sarcastically. Kestrel stared at her for a minute longer, and then she turned and fled from the room.

"Luke, stay here with Moira and Arthas. I'll be right back." I followed the other Necromancer to the living room. She was curled up in the big red armchair, staring listlessly at the floor. "Is everything okay, Kestrel? You don't look so good," I commented. She looked up at me with a blank expression.

"Why is _she _the one who came back?" Kestrel whispered. "She's the one who _watched _as I tore Donna to pieces! She's the one who left me in a prison cell for days at a time, completely alone in the darkness, and yet _she _came back instead of Donna!" I closed my eyes, trying to think of a response while simultaneously being startled by her hostile tone.

"Donna's happy now. She's with Brooke in the Titan World, and she's free to run and dance all she wants, and her injury is gone. Donna is free. Moira … she tried to do something good in her last minutes, and I think that's why she survived. Either that, or Malistaire's curse was way weaker than I originally thought." Kestrel shrugged.

"Whatever the reason, she should be dead. Donna should be back. _Donna _should be the one able to live her life, not _Moira Moonchaser._" Her voice was laced with venom, and I knew that she had harbored a lot more anger than I'd known about. My friend seemed about to say something else, but the sound of loud, rapid knocking on the door interrupted her. I went to answer it, and was surprised to see a very distressed looking Heather standing on my porch. Her face was stained with tears, and she was gasping for air, as though she'd just run a long distance. I could see Iris, her horse, standing in my front yard, calmly munching on the dark grass.

"Heather, what's wrong?" I asked, stepping back to allow her inside.

"S-s-sadie's b-b-b-been-" she couldn't finish the sentence without sobbing, pressing her hands into her face.

"Hey, it's okay! Calm down a little, come inside, and tell me what's up," I told her gently, taking the Conjurer by the arm and leading her into the living room. Kestrel let Heather have the large chair.

"I'll get her some water," she whispered to me as she hurried out of the room.

"Thanks, Kestrel. Heather, what happened? Is Sadie okay?" I asked her carefully. Slowly, Heather shook her head, took a few shaky breaths of air, and looked up at me.

"S-sadie's b-b-been t-taken."


	4. Chapter 4: Knowing

_**A/N: **__Thanks for the reviews, you awesome and lovely people! :) :) _

_**In response …**_

_**NightSkyWolves: **__Maybe … what about Time Turner? (Yes, I know it's a thing from Harry Potter, but it sounded cool! xD) You could also use her last name somehow, like "Storm Changer" or something to that effect. ^^_

_**DeathySophia: **__x) Why, yes. Yes I am xD_

_**Saffron Frostcaller: **__:) I will be sure to read your story when I get a chance :)_

_**SuperYuuki: **__Don't thank me yet … you haven't read the awful scene from this chapter yet O_o_

_**scarletfireblaze: **__You'll find out! *Evil grin* You probably haven't run into her just yet ..._

_**Celestial light: **__I will most likely be writing about Azteca in this story, and also the world that comes after Azteca (whatever it may be … xD) There's going to be a LOT of Celestia, though, at least at first. _

_**Wolfestar: **__Awww, thank you! :) _

_**DawnShadowQueen: **_'_Course I did! That's my job! :D xD Congratulations on getting an account! :)_

_**Thanks to my supercalifragilisticexpialid ociously avvesomesauce beta reader, Rebecca Ripple! xD (I shall use a different adjective every time I do one of these. This I solemnly vow. XD)**_

Arthas, Moira and Kestrel joined us a minute later, sitting in various places around the room as Heather told us her story.

"We w-were in Unicorn W-w-way," she began quietly. I noticed that her stutter had become worse under the stress. "S-sadie and I w-were w-w-walking, and I w-was helping her s-s-study f-for her Th-thaumaturgy test in a f-few weeks. I s-saw a b-b-beautiful flower a little w-ways ahead, and I went to p-pick it for her. Th-there was a s-s-strangled s-scream, and w-when I turned around, S-sadie was g-gone."

"Oh, my gosh … Heather … I'm so sorry," Kestrel said softly, staring at her in shock. The Conjurer began to cry again.

"It w-was my f-fault! I l-left her to g-go get that s-s-stupid f-flower, and now she's g-gone!"

"Heather, it is _not _your fault," I told her forcefully, narrowing my eyes and leaning forwards in my chair. "Whatever happened, I have a feeling that Morganthe is behind this. It's exactly the kind of thing she'd do." Heather looked over at me in surprise.

"M-morganthe did this?" She whispered. "Didn't she … k-kill one of S-sabrina's cousins, t-t-too?"

"Yeah. She's done a lot of pretty nasty stuff in the past couple of years, but the Headmaster says that she's been getting more aggressive lately. The attack on the Archmages was the worst one since the battle between those four Legendary wizards when we were kids." I frowned. Arthas began rubbing his forehead, wincing in pain.

"I'll be right back," he muttered, picking up his empty water glass and heading for the kitchen.

"How are w-we going t-t-to stop her, Alex?" Heather asked. "How c-can a g-group of T-transcendent w-wizards stop someone as p-p-powerful as M-morganthe?"

"I have no idea, Heather, but we'll figure that out tomorrow. Everyone else is coming over here, and we'll figure out when we're going to Celestia."

"Okay. And th-that's where w-we'll stop Morganthe?"

"We're gonna try, at least. I swear to you, we'll get Sadie back, no matter what happens in Celestia." Arthas returned and took a seat on the couch once more. He took a long drink of his water and set the glass down on the table, frowning in confusion.

"I've got such a headache," he muttered, pressing a hand to his forehead. I gave him a quick glance, and then returned to my conversation with Heather.

"Hopefully Erica will have more information than I do on Celestia; she might be able to tell us where Morganthe's possible location is, or she might be able to make connections between her different movements to predict her next attack." No one in the room noticed as Arthas rested his head on the arm of the couch and closed his eyes.

"She'll kn-know s-something. She's Erica," Heather declared, giving a small, wobbly smile. I grinned.

"Well, duh. She's practically a walking library!" Kestrel, Moira, Luke and I laughed. The Conjurer allowed herself a small giggle.

"Hey, do you guys want to go have lunch now? There's more than enough for you three," Kestrel said, grinning good-naturedly and indicating Luke, Moira and Heather. They nodded in agreement, and we all headed for the dining room. Moira paused to shake Arthas' shoulder.

"Arthas. Wake up; we're gonna have lunch," she said, poking his arm. The Theurgist didn't move, and Moira frowned. "Come on, get up!" She added, louder this time. There was no response.

"Are you coming, Moira?" Luke called.

"Hold on a minute; Arthas won't wake up," she replied. Moira looked around, noticed Arthas' glass of water on the table, and dumped it onto his head. He didn't even flinch. "Arthas! Wake up!" She snapped, shaking him harder. Moira finally slapped Arthas across the face, but there was no reaction. "Alex! He's not waking up!" She glanced over at me with wide eyes. "What's going on with him? Does this happen a lot, or something?"

"No … Arthas has been a really light sleeper, at least since he's been living at my house." I frowned in confusion. "Even the slightest sound normally wakes him up. This isn't natural." I unsheathed my cutlass and carefully touched the Theurgist on the forehead with the point. The blade glowed black almost immediately. Moira cursed.

"That's a sleeping plague, and not one of the normal ones. The glow would be fainter if the curse was a minor one. I have no idea how to break something this strong."

"Morganthe," I muttered, sliding my sword back into the scabbard.

"Something this strong would take days to progress this far … the magic would have to seep through his skin and into his bloodstream. It's the perfect weapon for someone who doesn't want to be caught. That is, unless it was administered orally."

"What?"

"Through the mouth. Certain curses can be consolidated into an edible form, but it involves a lot of weird chemical processes and stuff I never learned in the Academy. Since the curse hits the bloodstream within a few minutes, it's a lot stronger and activates a lot stronger." She froze suddenly, and her gaze slowly moved to the empty water glass. Moira shot to her feet and stormed out of the room. I followed her.

"Certainly took you guys long enough," Kestrel was saying as the albino girl stepped into the dining room.

"What the _HELL_, Kestrel?" Moira shrieked, immediately punching her in the face. "_It was you! _You brought the water, you put the curse in his water, this is _your _fault!" Kestrel fell backwards, scrambling away from Moira on all fours and pressing herself into a corner. She hissed, her eyes bugging in rage.

"_What in the Spiral are you TALKING about_?" Kestrel spat, practically breathing fire because of her anger.

"I'm talking about the curse you put on Arthas!" Moira yelled. "Take it off him!"

"What curse? I don't even know what you're talking about!"

"The sleeping curse!"

"What _sleeping curse_?"

"Will you both shut up for a second?" I finally yelled. The two went silent and stared at me.

"She-"

"Shut it!"

"But she just-"

"No! Shut your mouth or I'll knock you both unconscious!" I glared at them, folding my arms. "Did anyone, by any chance, happen to think of a _truth spell_? Kestrel, if you really did curse Arthas, you won't be able to lie once the spell is active."

"Fine! Use the spell, I don't care!" She threw her hands up in the air and stalked back to her chair. I rolled my eyes and quickly cast the truth spell on Kestrel.

"Kestrel Nightshade, did you cast a sleeping curse on Arthas?" I asked her.

"No! I didn't even know he _was _cursed until I got punched in the face!"

"And there you have it," I told Moira, removing the spell. She glared darkly at the other Necromancer.

"I'm going to look for who _really _cast it, then," she spat.

"Wait, Moira. Somehow, I have a feeling that Morganthe is behind this. Stick with us for another few days, at least; my friends and I are going to Celestia to help fight her, and there's a chance that we'll be able to force her to lift the curse." She raised an eyebrow, still staring at me mistrustingly.

"Why would I help _you_?"

"Because in return, _we _can help _you. _You'll have to start working with people again eventually, Moira."

"Fine." I hadn't expected her to agree so easily, and I assumed that she had other reasons, but I decided not to press her further.

-V-

It couldn't have been later than five thirty. I was curled up in my big red armchair, flipping through one of the larger books on Celestia and trying to cool the hot rage burning in my chest. Morganthe was ripping my hard-earned peace to shreds in front of me, and I was sick of it. There were moments where I very nearly screamed, I was so angry. I quickly bit my lip, however, and turned the pages of the book to a section including several Celestian fables. Reading would calm me down … I hoped.

Before I had a chance to drown myself in words, though, a **whisper **sounded in my mind.

_Miss Firesong, I have just received something I think you must see immediately. _Headmaster Ambrose again. He sounded surprised, for some reason. Whatever he'd been given had clearly rattled him pretty badly. I tucked a bookmark into the library book and set it down on the coffee table before heading into the main hallway.

"I'll be back in a few," I called to the silent house as I shoved my favorite hat onto my head and picked up my backpack. I stepped outside before I got a response. For a short moment, I debated calling Bat, but then I decided that I'd rather go alone, so I teleported to the Commons. When the black smoke cleared from my vision, the Headmaster's Office towered over my head. I hurried inside.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Alexandra," Headmaster Ambrose said, glancing at me before turning back to the group of novices in front of him. "You've done a wonderful job so far, young wizards! Lady Oriel has spoken highly of you all. Thank you very much for the report; if you could, please return in one hour, and I will have notices for you to post in Unicorn Way."

"Thank you, Headmaster!" They chorused before running out of the warm, cheerful room.

"You wanted to speak with me, Headmaster?"

"Yes. Yes, I did." He picked up a manilla folder from a drawer and turned to face me. "I'm afraid that I have nothing to help you with your current quest, but I do have something that will mean quite a lot to you. Do you have any idea what this is, Miss Firesong?" He held up the folder, and I shrugged.

"Some kind of report, if I had to guess."

"Correct. This is a report from my scouts in Dragonspyre." I stiffened at the name of the fiery world, and the Headmaster gave me a small smile."Don't look so worried, young wizard! There is nothing to fear; rather, they say that the relief efforts are going very well there, and attempts to drive the more dangerous Undead from Dragonspyre have been mostly successful. However, enemy movements and relief efforts are not why I asked you to come." He pulled a small, slightly scorched envelope from the folder and held it up for me to see. "This was found in the Crucible yesterday evening." My heart very nearly stopped, because I recognized the bright red seal on the envelope. It was the Firesong family seal. A dragon sat in the center of the Fire School Emblem, and it was surrounded by a ring of flames and musical notes.

"What is that?" I asked slowly, my voice barely louder than a whisper.

"I think you should read it, Alexandra." He gave my the envelope, which I took with shaky hands. Someone from my family had touched this … I slit the envelope open, careful to avoid breaking the seal. I slid a neatly folded sheet of paper out and slowly, slowly unfolded it. "Would you mind reading it aloud?"

"Y-yeah … sure." I began to read. "_To Headmaster Ambrose: Some strange things have been going on in the Crucible lately. I've seen strange, shadowy creatures high in the sky- no, not drakes. These are much larger and darker. The skies have been uneasy, changing from blue to strange shades of red and orange in mere minutes. Massive clouds often completely obscure the sun. Plants have been shrivelling up and dying. Animals are fleeing Dragonspyre as quickly as they are able- except for the drakes, which have been more and more active as the days go by. There have been increasing numbers of Undead in the area, and just a few minutes ago, I caught a sinister looking woman staring at me from across the street. She was dressed in layers of flowing black robes, and her face was masked. She carried a strange black staff, and her eyes- they were maroon, if I remember correctly- she never blinked. Not once. She held up a red and orange card, but I couldn't make out what it was from across the street. When I finally had to blink, she was gone_." I stopped reading abruptly.

"Well? Go on."

"That woman was Morganthe! It has to be! But … what was she doing in the Crucible?"

"Continue. It may be explained."

"Okay. _I had to leave my daughter standing in a doorway to investigate the latest strange shadow; I caught sight of it just ten minutes ago and had to follow it. I think there's a meteor shower coming, Headmaster. The signs are all right, and that card … it looked suspicious. That is all I can say. All I can hope is that my home and family survive this shower. Sincerely, Agent F." _I set down the letter. "Agent Firesong. Alyssa Firesong was a spy for you. My mother … was a spy."

"Yes."

"She saw Morganthe in the Crucible."

"She did. The scouts reported abnormally strong traces of dark magic in that area, although the traces were years old. It has been identified as the work of Morganthe."

"Morganthe was seen in the Crucible _minutes _before my mother's death. She was seen _by my mother, _who she showed a card … a Pyromancy card."

"It's highly likely."

"Morganthe caused that shower." I stood abruptly, throwing my chair to the floor. I slammed my palm onto Headmaster Ambrose's desk. "Morganthe killed my mother! She destroyed my home! My life nearly went to pieces because of what she did! _WHY DID SHE DO IT_?" My voice rose in pitch and volume as I spoke, and the Headmaster watched me with sad, calm eyes. I felt two tears run from my eyes, nearly burning my skin as they rolled down my cheeks. I clenched my hand into a fist so tight that my whole arm was shaking. "We are going to stop her," I said in a dangerously quiet voice. "My friends and I? We're leaving for Celestia within a week." I turned on my heel and stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind me with force enough to shake the building.

_**A/N: **__SuperYuuki, what did you think of Moira's reaction? I was going to send you a message, but I was trying to get the chapter done. I'll edit if you think I need to._


	5. Chapter 5: Many Meetings

_**A/N: **__Yay for fast updates! :D I will probably not be updating again next week, due to a freaking massive cake that needs to be made next weekend and requires a large amount of planning. If at all possible, however, I will update twice the week after. (Almost April break! Woot woot! xD) _

_**Disclaimer: Shh. Do you hear that? It's the sound of me not owning Wizard101. ;)**_

_**Review Replies:**_

_**NightSkyWolves: **__It's fine if you laugh; I wasn't too happy with it, either … x) By the way, nice title choice! :D I'm glad I could help you with it :)_

_**anthonysupericewizard: **__You are correct :)_

_**DawnShadowQueen: **__Most likely, yes XD Not only do the wizards have to deal with a much more violent and evil villain, they've also got some pretty serious PTSD from ze last quest. I will try to throw in some humor here and there, though; many thanks to Shakespeare's _Macbeth _for ze idea! xD _

My friends started to show up a few minutes before noon. Heather and Nolan were the first to show up. Heather looked like she'd been crying again, but she managed to give me a small, wobbly smile when I opened the door.

Ashley showed up next. Dark circles rimmed her eyes, and her normally energetic face looked tired. A tiny girl with short, dark blond hair clung tightly to her arm. I vaguely recognized the girl as Tiffany Spellstone, Ashley's younger sister.

"How's Michelle doing?" I asked my friend in a low tone once Tiffany had taken a seat on the couch. Ashley frowned.

"Her surgery is scheduled for four today," she replied shortly. "She's gonna be in the hospital for at least another month or two afterwards, but she can have visitors again tomorrow. Tiffany and I are going to see her." I nodded.

"Tell her that I hope she's doing better soon," I said quietly before going to answer the door again. Erica, Tristan and Chelsea were there this time, and I silently directed them to the parlor.

Luke was the eighth person to arrive, and Destiny wasn't far behind. My best friend was one of the strongest people I knew, but she looked like she hadn't slept or eaten for days, and it seemed like the entire weight of the world was pressing down on her shoulders.

"I went to see Ceren today," she said softly, and I pulled her into a tight hug.

"Ceren's tough; he'll pull through, you'll see," I told her reassuringly. "Some of the best Theurgists in the city are taking care of him. I bet he will be awake in no time." Destiny merely shrugged.

About ten minutes later, we were still waiting for Evan and Sabrina.

"Are we going to start discussing our quest now, or should we keep waiting?" Erica inquired as she unpacked a few thick books and a composition book from her backpack. The doorbell rang, answering my question for me.

"I'll get it, Alex," Kestrel said, standing from her spot on the floor and hurrying into the entrance hallway.

"I can see that _you've _been busy," I remarked almost jokingly, looking at the Thaumaturge's stack of books. She shrugged modestly.

"I know I could have found much more than what I've got, but this is all I had time for," she replied. "I'll be sure to do some more research before we leave."

"I don't doubt it," I said dryly as Kestrel and Sabrina stepped into the parlor.

If I'd thought Sabrina looked distracted and sick before, that was nothing compared to how she looked that day in my parlor. She had all but given up, it seemed. Her face was gaunt and pale, and she seemed beyond exhausted. Her old fiery temper and snotty attitude had practically been erased after dealing with all of her recent family issues.

"Sorry I'm late," she said in a dull tone. "I was talking to the tombstone maker. Chris' funeral will be in two days.'" The room was deadly silent. None of us said a word; we'd all felt the same grief at one point or another, and knew that it was sometimes best to not say a word. Kestrel led Sabrina over to a vacant chair.

"We're just waiting for Evan now," I said quietly, standing up and pacing in front of the big red door. When the knock finally came, I was already turning the doorknob. Three people stood on my porch. One was Evan Starblade, who grinned and waved at me. The second was a tall, somewhat scrawny boy with shaggy black hair that fell into his eyes. His face was very similar to Evan's, and I guessed that they were related. The third person was a girl with a very familiar face and short, curly black hair. The girl sat in a wheelchair, and a purple blanket emblazoned with a gold storm symbol covered her legs. She gave me a small, cheerful smile. The young boy simply stared at me blankly.

"Hey, Alex. This is my brother Lionel, and Cassie Swiftriver. They wanted to come when they found out what happened to Sadie." Lionel frowned.

"She's one of our best friends," he informed me in a voice that was remarkably similar to Evan's.

"Oh. I see. Umm … you guys can come on in, then. We're just about to get started." I stepped back so the three of them could pass, holding the door open wide so Cassie could wheel herself inside. She did so surprisingly quickly, and she must have noticed my expression, because she chuckled.

"Since my legs don't work, my arms got a lot stronger," Brooke's sister informed me, grinning.

"That's cool," I replied, letting the door swing shut behind her and following the younger girl into the parlor.

"Can I go first?" Erica asked, picking up her notebook, flipping it open and pushing her glasses higher on her nose.

"Sure. Go ahead." I settled back into my armchair.

"Okay. So, I went to a bunch of other libraries and looked through my own collection of books, and I found all of these." She tapped her stack of books. "It took me awhile, but I found some pretty good information on Morganthe. Listen to this." She glanced at her notebook, selected one of the tomes from beside her and flipped about halfway through it. "Morganthe has proclaimed herself to be the Umbra Queen. Umbra means 'Shadow,' by the way. So she calls herself the Shadow Queen, the evillest and most powerful Necromancer in the entire Spiral." Chelsea scoffed.

"That's not true. We all know that Alex is more powerful than anyone else!" I gave her a cursory glance.

"She can beat four Archmages almost single handedly. I can't even beat one, and I'm still learning. It's very likely that she's a lot tougher than I am," I replied. "Keep going, Erica."

"Morganthe was originally from Zafaria, but when she was a teenager, she travelled to Avalon, where she was raised and trained in magic. When she was about nineteen years old, she and her brother, Sir Mallory of the Silver Rose, betrayed King Artorius. They transformed him into a strange creature called 'The Pendragon,' a fearsome monster of great power, and then fled Avalon. A council of all the strongest wizards and warriors in the Spiral came together and took Morganthe's magic from her. It was imprisoned within some kind of totem in Zafaria, which must be broken by someone other than Morganthe or one of her blood in order to release the magic. After several years of intensive training, she managed to gain some new power, although her magic isn't nearly as powerful as it once was. All should hope that Morganthe, the Umbra Queen, never recovers her magic, for if she does, none will be strong enough to stop her." Erica set down the book. The room was quiet for a moment, and then Evan spoke up.

"Headmaster Ambrose should be warned, if he doesn't already know. He has the power to strengthen Zafaria's defenses, and it's possible that he is strong enough to prevent Morganthe's reentry entirely. If she can't get to Zafaria, she won't be able to release her power."

"That's a great idea, Evan, but remember that it has to be someone other than Morganthe or her family that destroys the totem. I have a feeling that she could easily beguile someone into doing it for her."

"If it's that important to keep Morganthe separate from her magic, it won't be just anyone that can break it," Tristan argued.

"Very true," Erica admitted. "You're right, Evan. The Headmaster should hear about this."

"I can send him a letter," I said, reaching into my backpack for a piece of paper and a pen. As Erica continued to speak about her findings, I scribbled down a hasty message to Headmaster Ambrose. I nearly dropped my pen in surprise when a loud _bang _echoed through my house. I identified it as the sound of the door, and sure enough, footsteps followed the _bang. _Into the parlor walked a tall boy dressed in the gold and blue robes of a Conjurer. A sandy brown amulet hung around his neck from a long chain, and small, harmless sparks flew from the Balance symbol in the center of it. His hair was short and dark brown, and his blue eyes were cold and dark with fury. His left sleeve was long enough to cover his hand, although his right sleeve was slightly shorter and revealed a clenched, black-gloved fist.

"Tyler? What are you doing here?" Sabrina asked, sounding surprised. Tyler Mythdream - for who else could he be? - glanced towards his younger cousin, and then back at me.

"When you go to Celestia to bring her down, I'm coming with you," he growled in a low voice. "Do you know what she did to me?" I didn't respond, assuming that the question was rhetorical. "_Do you_?" Slowly, I nodded.

"She killed your brother."

"Yeah. She killed him, tore out his throat right in front of my eyes. Wanna know what else she took from me?" Without waiting for my answer, Tyler grabbed his left shoulder, wincing slightly as he did so, and yanked it down. His arm ended just slightly below his shoulder. "She took my brother, and she took my arm. For that, I swear to you, I will rip out her heart." His eyes practically burned with cold rage, and I couldn't help but shiver.

"Welcome to the group, Tyler Mythdream," I said in a quiet voice. "Have a seat. We're discussing everything we know about Celestia, and about Morganthe. Erica, you got anything else?" The Thaumaturge was shocked by Tyler's sudden appearance and by the loss of his arm, and she jumped in alarm when I said her name.

"What? Oh! Yes, yes I do. Just one second …" She let her first book fall to the floor with a _thump _and ruffled through the pages of another, almost immediately locating what she needed. "Did you know that Grandmother Raven gave a prophecy not too long ago? Here it is: 'The mirror will break, the horn will call. From the shadows I strike, and the skies will fall.' I haven't really been able to interpret it, but I'm pretty sure that the 'from the shadows I strike' part is referring to Morganthe."

"I've seen that somewhere." Everyone's head turned to the door of the parlor, where Moira stood, dressed in a simple black robe she'd borrowed from me. She took one look at everyone's shocked expressions and rolled her eyes. "I guess I've got some explaining to do. Once upon a time, there was a Necromancer named Moira Moonchaser. She got hit with a shitty, bad quality curse from a deranged man who was trying to destroy the whole Spiral, and everyone thought she was dead- but oh, wait! She wasn't actually dead!" Her voice was so dry that I practically felt the room's humidity drop. "Anyways, Moira's drake mount found her in the Crown of Fire, half conscious, and carried her to Ravina Blackwing, who healed her wounds and sent her on her way. Moira hung out in Dragonspyre for a year, and she finally decided that she was bored with fire and wanted to go back to irritating Firesong and her gang. She got back to Wizard City and went with Firesong to Firesong's house, where she reunited with one of her former torture-victims-slash-prisoners and her … uh … Arthas. Just a few minutes later, however, Arthas became the receiver of a sleeping curse, and Moira decided that she would stick with Firesong and try to kill Morganthe, the suspected caster of said curse. And they all lived happily-ever-after-without-the-happy-part. The end." There was a collective eye-roll that we'd all saved just for Moira.

"Thank you for that lovely summary, Moira," I said sarcastically. She smirked.

"Any time, Firesong. So, when are we leaving?" I looked around at my friends.

"It's best if we leave as soon as possible," Erica suggested. "Who knows what she's gonna do to the last of the wizards in Celestia?" I nodded.

"Three days?" They all voiced their agreement. "Okay. Three days. Meet back here at six thirty that morning; the fewer people that see us leave, the less likely Morganthe is to find out."


	6. Chapter 6: Sister

_**A/N: WARNING! **__Ultimate Frisbee practice is starting on Tuesday, so I highly doubt I will be updating very often until it's over. There are 2 less practice days this year, which will *help,* but I will still be short on time. Expect slow updates, although I will try my best. _

_In response to le reviews …_

_**Hawkstar**__: ?_

_**Anthonysupericewizard**__: Oh yeah he is XD Tyler is NOT going to be happy once he gets back to Celestia … /deadmorganthe XD_

_**NightSkyWolves**__: Still Celestia xP I'm currently working on the Floating Land. _

The Headmaster would want to know of my group's plans, and so Luke, Evan and I set out for his office early that morning. None of us spoke as we rode through the Commons, although I had a feeling we were all thinking the same thing: What was going to happen next?

Oddly enough, Headmaster Ambrose's office was completely empty when we arrived. There were no novices chattering excitedly to one another, no Adepts and Masters complaining about the recent heat wave, no Journeymen discussing their quests. Ambrose sat at his desk, going through a tall stack of papers on the surface. The three of us stood in the doorway silently for a minute, not wanting to disturb the elderly man. He looked up a few seconds later.

"Ah. Young Miss Firesong, Mr. Starblade, Mr. Shadowstorm. It is a pleasure to see you all." He gave them a tired smile. "I apologize if I've been a bit distracted; with the new year about to begin, I have quite a bit of paperwork to deal with." He patted the stack of paper, which had to be about two feet high.

"Sheesh. You should get a paperwork assistant or something," I commented, staring at the heaps of work that the Headmaster had to do.

"You're probably right, but I simply haven't the time to look for one. Now, you have something to tell me, I presume?" I nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, we do. My friends and I have all agreed that we're leaving in three days," I informed him.

"Bright and early, I might add," Luke said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Alex, I hope you're aware that I don't get up any time before _ten thirty_ on normal days. This is practically criminal of you to make me get up so early." I swatted his arm gently.

"Well, it won't be a normal day, now will it?" Ambrose cleared his throat impatiently, and my boyfriend and I turned back to him.

"I've just received the reports from the wizards in Celestia. Morganthe's forces have moved great distances over the last few days; a small army of Pisceans travelled out of the District of the Stars and into the Stellarium just yesterday morning."

"She's gotta be looking for something," Evan muttered.

"Yes, I do believe that she is. Our spies- what few remain- have been attempting to discover her plans for weeks, and we have made very little headway- at least, until now, that is." He closed his eyes and tapped his fingertips together. "My very best spy recently attempted one of Wizard City's most daring missions ever tried in Celestia. His goal was to get a bug into Morganthe's main fortress in the Portico."

"Did he succeed?" I asked urgently. Slowly, the Headmaster nodded.

"Yes. Brian managed to sneak the bug into the very heart of Morganthe's stronghold." We all grinned widely, and I gave both of my friends high fives. "There was a price, however. As Brian was escaping from the Portico, Morganthe's army caught him. He was executed on the spot. Our bug, however, has not been discovered."

"Oh … that sucks …" the Pyromancer said slowly.

"It's good that the bug is still there, though," Luke pointed out. Evan shrugged.

"Yeah, although it would be better if the spy had escaped, too. How'd he managed to get into Morganthe's stronghold?"

"Even _I _am not entirely sure how Brian managed it," the Headmaster replied. "He did have some skill with illusions, however, which could have aided him in entering the fortress."

"So, what have we got from this bug? Is it audio, video …"

"This particular bug can send us only photographs, although several Marleybonian technicians are working on audio bugs that we could send in without a carrier."

"That would definitely be helpful."

"Yes, indeed it would. Now, I have only received a few of the photographs from the base where the images are being transmitted to, but they may be of help to you." He held up a large picture.

It was a somewhat blurry image, but it was in color, and I recognized the familiar elegance of Celestian architecture. The door to the room shone with an eerie light that I recognized as a trap spell that would kill a fully grown man if he so much as brushed the surface of the door. There were no windows, and the room was sparsely furnished. There were four small beds, a table and a few chairs.

Five people occupied the room. One was Morganthe herself, dressed in flowing black robes with a high, pointed collar and a tall silver crown, and the other four were people I didn't recognize. They wore very simple black robes and shoes, and there was an iron prison ring around each one of their necks. One of the prisoners was a blonde woman who sat in a chair, staring blankly at the table in front of her. One was an old man who lay on a bed, seemingly asleep. The other two were both young girls, about the same age. One of them was unfamiliar, with short, unruly black hair, and the other sat in the corner of the room with her hands pressed into her face.

"The second picture focuses a bit more on the prisoners," Ambrose informed us, holding up the second. I stared closely at the second girl, and immediately recognized her.

"Oh, my gosh … that's Sadie!" I pointed to her with a shaking hand. Sure enough, the girl's long, light brown braided hair was clearly visible, and I recognized what I could see of her face.

"But who are the other three?" Luke wondered.

"We have identified young Miss Rosegem," the Headmaster said sadly. "I believe that the woman is a very famous Theurgist who went missing many years ago. You might have heard of her; if my guess is correct, that woman is Marieta Jadeleaf."

"_Jadeleaf_?" Sabrina's mother had been found.

"Yes. I haven't the slightest clue who that other poor girl is, but I have one or two guesses about the man."

"Grandpa," Evan whispered. He had the strangest expression on his face as he reached out to touch the photograph, almost as though he could reach through it to the man he apparently knew. "That's my grandpa, Mortis Starblade … I thought he was killed by Morganthe years ago!" The Pyromancer reached up to his throat and tightly clutched the Death amulet that he always wore. "He gave this to me."

"So, it is Mortis. I thought he looked familiar from somewhere." Ambrose scribbled something down on a sheet of paper.

"Is there any way you could get a clearer picture?" Evan asked, his voice barely audible. The Headmaster nodded and handed my friend the third picture.

"This is the last one we have at this moment, unfortunately, but-" Evan slammed the photograph face down onto the Headmaster's desk and stormed out of the room. "Oh, my … I do hope young Mr. Starblade is feeling well. He looked quite pale." Ambrose seemed startled.

"We'll find him, don't worry," I called over my shoulder as I ran after Evan.

-V-

When Luke and I finally caught up to our friend, he was pacing back and forth in front of the Commons waterfall. He paused when he saw us.

"Hey, dude, what's going on?" Luke asked, taking a step closer to the Pyromancer. "You look like you saw a ghost!"

"In a manner of speaking, yes, I saw a ghost," he muttered, running a hand through his hair and continuing his pacing.

"What-"

"I think that's my sister." I was stunned.

"Sister? What sister? I thought you only had a brother!" Luke said, sounding confused.

"She died when I was eleven," Evan snapped, rubbing his forehead. "We were running from a bunch of drakes that were chasing us, and she got left behind."

"Did you actually _see _her die?" I asked slowly.

"No, but when I went back for her, Lionel was the only one there. He said that Lin had been taken by the drakes. _No one _survives being taken by drakes, because they only hunt for food. They're nothing more than animals."

"Unless they were summoned by someone …"

"If Morganthe can cast a Meteor Strike strong enough to bring the Forum to its knees, she can summon a couple of drakes," I snarled.

"Exactly. Aislin should have been dead after those drakes took her, but if I'm right, it was _her _in that picture." Evan flopped to the ground and pressed his face into his hands, shaking his head as if he was trying to make sense of the whole situation.

"Evan, it's gonna be okay, you know that. We are going to hunt down Morganthe and free those prisoners; they'll be safe soon," Luke said, trying to reassure the Pyromancer.

"You don't get it," Evan snapped. "Neither of you gets it! When Aislin was taken, my entire family was torn to pieces! My parents blamed each other and fought constantly- they got a divorce almost six years ago- and my brother and I had to fend for ourselves! My family moved to Triton Avenue right after the accident; we left behind everything we'd ever known, and Lionel basically had to take care of himself until he was old enough to join Ravenwood!" He leaned back against the tree, but it wasn't to get comfortable. "I started school the day she disappeared. I had to put on a mask and make believe that I was completely fine." He shook his head. "I was never really 'fine,' or happy for that matter, until almost Master rank. Thank the Titans I'm a good actor."


	7. Chapter 7: Departure

_**A/N: **__Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm slacking. I know. Ultimate Frisbee has been ... EXHAUSTINGPAINFULTIMECONSUMING. (I figured that it needed it's own word to describe how exhausting, painful and time consuming it has been ... O_o) I might be back on my "one update a week" schedule, but only if I don't come home from practice/games feeling like someone shot me. O_O_

_**Review Responses ...**_

_**NightSkyWolves: **__Yeahh ... yuck. xP Thankfully, I have my lovely Archmage Pyromancer brother to help me ... xD _

_**BuBuWinter: **__Loopy is good x) Completely sleep-deprived-sugar-high-INSANE is so much more fun, however ... XD /midnight_

_**DarkShadowQueen: **__Ohhhh ... now I get it XD_

_**Thanks very much to my magnificent beta reader, Rebecca Ripple! :D**_

I began packing for the trip the night before we were going to leave. I set my normal school backpack aside and pulled a much larger bag from my closet. It was a little dusty, and I could still see the scorch marks from when it had been hauled through Dragonspyre, but it was intact and would carry what I needed.

Aside from my Death armor, I packed clothing to be worn in both freezing cold and boiling hot weather, which included my Dragonspyre mask- the one I hadn't touched since my return to Wizard City. As I folded my black hooded cloak, I ran my hand over a slightly darker stain near the middle. It was a bloodstain from when I had touched Brooke's destroyed body after Malistaire had skewered her with his staff. I shivered and set the cloak aside. I decided to bring my other one.

I tossed my notebook and my school work into the backpack as well. If I got a spare moment, it only made sense that I continued to study. The stronger my group and I were, the better off we'd be if Morganthe decided to strike against us. As an afterthought, I also added my spare deck of cards; my favorite deck could easily be damaged, so a spare deck could very possibly save my life.

I paused when I glanced over at the picture of the captives, which was pinned to my bulletin board. I'd asked the Headmaster if I could keep it, and every time I looked at it- Sadie, crying as she sat in a corner, Evan's poor little sister, who had been imprisoned since she was four- a fresh wave of anger surged through my veins. Morganthe was a sick, demented devil; taking young girls, someone's mother and an old man prisoner was not going to help her cause any. She just wanted to cause us all pain. Well, it was working, but not in her favor. The imprisonment of the four only made me want to blow the Umbra Queen into tiny little pieces, not surrender to her.

Next to the photo from Morganthe's fortress was a picture that made me want to cry. It had been taken a few months ago at Sabrina's 18th birthday party. She stood between her two cousins. Chris' arm was thrown over her shoulder, and the Theurgist had her arm around Tyler's waist. All three were laughing. One of them was gone now, and the other two would never be the same. I'd found Sabrina in the Commons the day before, staring down at the same picture- but she'd torn a hole through Chris' face, and splashed white out over Tyler's arm. The Theurgist had been crying. Sabrina was literally falling apart; I was hoping that she'd be okay to go on the quest, but she hadn't looked any better at Chris' funeral, which had been earlier in the day.

I thought of Ceren Nightchant, who was very possibly dying in a hospital bed. I thought of Michelle Spellstone, who had barely survived her surgery, was under 24 hour supervision and needed an oxygen tank to breathe. I thought of Arthas, who still hadn't woken up, and how the curse had affected Moira. The albino had woken the entire house with her screams in the night, and she'd later admitted (albeit extremely reluctantly) that she had horrific nightmares, which Arthas had always kept away. (She refused to say how.) I thought of my mother and remembered the terror, the anguish, the deep, biting pain that had come from the knowledge of her death. I picked up an athame from the table and drove it through Morganthe's face in the picture from her fortress.

"We're going to make her pay. You know that as well as any of us," came a voice from behind me. I turned to look at Luke, who'd been over just about all day.

"Yeah. I know," I sighed. "I'm just- if this is what she's done to _our little group-_" I waved a hand at the photographs- "... then what has she done to other people? How much destruction has Morganthe caused in Celestia? How much pain did she cause to the people of Avalon when she and her brother turned the king into a monster?" I ran a hand through my hair. "I'm almost afraid to find out, Luke." He came closer, standing beside me and looking at the pictures on the bulletin board.

"So am I, Alex." We were both silent for a moment before he continued. "So, what are we doing once we get to Celestia tomorrow?" I thought carefully.

"We've gotta find the wizards that are still working there. The sooner we meet up with them, the sooner we can start working against Morganthe. The Headmaster says that they were stationed in the Grotto, but after what happened to the four Archmages, they fled. No one knows where they've gone now, and so we'll have to ask around." Luke nodded.

"That sounds good, for a start. Once we find them, we can see what they know about Morganthe's plans, and we can figure out a way to stop her and repair the damage she's done."

"I guess." I zipped my backpack shut and tossed my clothing for the next day onto my chair. "So, I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Bright and early," my boyfriend replied, giving me a wry grin. He kissed me goodnight and teleported back to his house.

-V-

As it turned out, I didn't even need my alarm. I was awake twenty minutes before it went off, and I was dressed and ready to go by 6:25. I grabbed my backpack and cutlass from the floor and called Shadow, my new pet black cat. She had chosen her panther form that morning, and her footsteps echoed loudly throughout the house as she ran down the stairs. I looked around my room one last time before following my pet downstairs.

I wasn't hungry that morning (neither was anyone else, really) but Kestrel forced me to eat a few bites of my bagel.

"If you leave without eating anything, you'll be not only hungry, but also tired within fifteen minutes," she insisted.

As it turned out, it was a good thing I ate breakfast when I did. The other quest members began to show up a few minutes later, and within ten minutes, they were all standing in my entrance hallway- even Luke, who was surprisingly on time (although he looked like he was asleep on his feet.)

Tyler looked as angry as ever, and he had a large backpack slung over his left shoulder, which he balanced precariously by hunching the shoulder upwards. His grip was tight on a glowing gold sword that hung around his waist.

Lionel and Cassie were also there. Evan's younger brother looked no less serious than a few days before, and in contrast, Brooke's sister seemed just as cheerful as she'd been. The surprise addition to the quest group was Ashley's little sister, Tiffany Spellblade. She stood back a few feet from Lionel and Cassie, tightly clutching a small bag and carefully inspecting my floor.

"Are you sure that the three of you are up for this?" I asked, stepping closer to them. "Celestia's dangerous, guys- a lot more dangerous than you think."

"We know," Cassie Swiftriver spoke up. "We know that it's dangerous, Alex, and we know that we might not make it back. Sadie's our friend, though. We've got to help her." The three younger wizards seemed determined to help, so I nodded reluctantly.

"All right, as long as you know the risks and are willing to come of your own free will. What level are you?" My question was mainly out of curiosity, but it would also help determine who they should be working with later on.

"I'm level 46, and I'm a Sorcerer," Lionel informed me.

"I just reached Grandmaster rank last week," Cassie declared proudly, "...and I'm guessing you know what School I am." She giggled and indicated her blanket.

"Level 39 Thaumaturge," Tiffany whispered, glancing up at me for a second before quickly gluing her gaze to the dusty carpet again. I cringed slightly when she said her level. 39? I was allowing a Magus to come into Celestia ... A Magus and a Master. I wasn't so worried about Cassie; after all, Tristan and Chelsea were both Grandmasters, and I was fairly certain that they'd be able to take care of themselves well enough. A _Magus _and a _Master, _though ... they'd have to be well protected. I made a mental note to keep the two of them with the strongest wizards in the group.

"Got it. Thanks. So, are we ready to go?" I looked around at my quest group. They all voiced their agreement in one way or another, and so I pushed open the door and stepped outside into the cool air. The sky was getting lighter, but the sun hadn't quite appeared at the horizon yet. We had timed our departure perfectly.

Moira stood by a large black drake in my front yard.

"He's safe in the hospital," she told me in a low voice as I approached. "They promised to take care of him until he wakes up or until we get back." I nodded.

"That's good. You're coming with us, right?"

"Well, duh. I said I was, didn't I?" She gave me a halfhearted eye roll. "Get with the program, Firesong. Let's get out of here."


	8. Chapter 8: Celestia

_**A/N: **__O_o That took a LOT longer than I expected … very sorry. It seems that Ultimate has been taking up a lot more time and energy as we get deeper into the season … I fully intend to update at least once more before the end of May, however, and maybe twice more if possible_

_**Le responses to le reviews:**_

_**SpycyAlmond: **__Oops! Sorry! I guess I forgot to add your name when I was writing the last chapter's author note … O_o I unfortunately haven't been able to play Wizard101 in a while; the computer that will run it is broken at the moment T_T_

_**NightSkyWolves: **__Indeed they are! I actually helped my brother beat Celestia when I was a Magus; it was easier than I expected x) (Then again, he was either a Grandmaster or a Legendary, depending on when I helped him …) I still haven't gotten any farther, really. As I said above, ze game computer is broken :( Also, I will add those changes to my O.C. files :)_

_**DawnShadowQueen: **__That's a good idea :D I might have to use that … x)_

_**BuBu Winter: **__I will do my very best! O_o _

_Speaking of O.C.'s, I probably won't be able to keep all of the new ones in the next story, simply because I won't be able to use them all. O_O They might get a mention/a small appearance here or there, but nothing super major. _

_Another O.C. note __**WHICH IS IMPORTANT TO O.C. SUBMITTERS**__: I did end up having to make a few changes to some of the O.C.'s in order to fit them into the story better. Mostly, all I did was change the levels around, since I received an awful lot of Masters … __**Lexi Lopezi**__, I also gave your character a nickname since she shares a first name with one of the other characters. If it's not one you like, let me know and I'll change it. _

The silence in the Commons made the usually-friendly place seem eerie and foreboding. The streets were empty and every window was closed tightly against the morning chill. I couldn't help but shiver as my group rode silently through the wide open area.

Our first stop was at the Headmaster's office. We had to inform him that we were leaving and make sure there were no last minute instructions or bits of helpful information for Ambrose to give us. He had neither, but appreciated us letting him know that we were leaving- at least, it seemed like he appreciated it, since the man was half asleep when we arrived. Once we'd checked in with the Headmaster, my group and I set off through the dim Commons, heading for our main destination: the Wizard City Spiral Chamber, which lay deep within Bartleby's heart.

When we stepped into the Spiral Chamber, I couldn't help but look up at the ceiling of the chamber. The ceiling was, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful parts of Bartleby's Core. A mess of tangled, knotted branches formed most of the roof, allowing light to seep through into the Chamber. Dozens of glass prisms of all different shapes and sizes dangled from the branches on long, multicolored ribbons, throwing tiny shards of rainbows all across the walls. In the early morning light, however, even the Spiral Chamber seemed darker and spookier than it usually did. I hurried through the Chamber and climbed the steps to the Spiral Door.

"Ready?" I asked, turning to face my group. They nodded, and I drew my cutlass, gently touched the Celestia Spiral Key, and opened the Door. The familiar glowing portal awaited us. I turned and took one last look at Wizard City before stepping through the portal.

In all of my extensive travels, I had never actually been to Celestia before, and nothing could have prepared me for what I stepped into when I left the portal. The Celestian Spiral Door lay in the Celestia Base Camp, home to researchers from all over the Spiral. Many were Marleybonians, and all were eager to learn more about the mysterious- and mainly underwater- world. There had to be at least a hundred of them walking this way and that within the Base Camp, which was part of the main underwater section of Celestia. A massive clear dome rose high over their heads, and hundreds of thick silver pipes shuttled oxygen into the Base Camp, weaving their way through the perfectly clear blue water like enormous snakes.

Dozens of tents in all different shapes, sizes and colors were set up all over the camp. A few makeshift wooden bridges had been constructed to move large and heavy machinery over the larger ditches in the soft, sandy ground. Maybe a handful of actual buildings were scattered around the Base Camp, and in the very back was a gigantic blue and silver structure that looked like a collapsing Celestian palace.

My group and I simply stood there for a moment, staring at the Celestia Base Camp in awe and surprise, trying to take in everything that we were seeing. After a minute or two, I called to the group as I walked towards the main part of the Base Camp.

"We'd better start by asking around. See if anyone knows where the remaining wizards are, and try to get some information on Morganthe and her doings, while you're at it," I told them. The first person I approached was a female Marleybonian dressed in loose, simple clothing and a newsboy hat. She was poring over a massive book, which was so large that she had to keep it on a pedestal in order to read it. "Excuse me," I began. The dog looked up and gave me a friendly smile.

"Why, hello there! You're a new face down here; what brings you to the Celestia Base Camp?" She asked, taking a step back from the book and brushing her hands off on her pant legs.

"I'm Alexandra Firesong. My team and I are here to help the wizards that stayed in Celestia after Morganthe's attack last week." The dog seemed suddenly to notice my Transcendent Necromancer robes and the cutlass that hung from my hip.

"Oh! I'm Edith Benchley, a mechanic here. I've heard quite a lot about what you did in Dragonspyre, Miss Firesong! It's an honor to meet you!" She shook my hand.

"Er ... thanks. So, do you know where the other wizards fled after the attack?" I asked her. Edith frowned thoughtfully for a moment, and then reluctantly shook her head.

"I'm afraid not. If I do hear anything, though, I will send word to you right away.."

"Thanks." I was going to say more, but just then, Ashley hurried up to me.

"I know where they went," she whispered in my ear. I nodded goodbye to the mechanic and quickly followed the Thaumaturge to where Chelsea and Tristan were chatting with a well dressed Marleybonian- well, rather, he was chattering away happily while the two Grandmasters listened, nodding every once in awhile to show that they were paying attention.

"I hate to interrupt, but there's someone you need to meet, sir," Chelsea cut in. The Theurgist waved me over. "Alex, this is Ogden Peake. He knows where the other wizards went. Mr. Peake, this is Alexandra Firesong." I nodded to the Marleybonian, who gripped my hand and shook it enthusiastically.

"I've heard all about you!" He declared, beaming at me. "I hear that you and your group are going to join up with those other wizards, Miss Firesong."

"Yeah. And _you _know where they fled to after Morganthe's attack? Are you sure?" I was a bit skeptical of this excitable dog who acted like a five year old in an adult's body- but then I remembered someone else who was very much like this "Ogden Peake." Donna Dragonflame had been no more mature than he seemed, and yet her potential and strength had been limitless. I flinched inwardly at my own doubt and paid attention when Ogden began to speak again.

"Of course I'm sure! After all, I was working with them when they were still stationed here," he informed me, a little indignantly. "I often heard their leader speaking about finding a backup base just in case something happened here. He showed a special interest in the Floating Land; after all, it is far beyond the reach of Morganthe, being on the surface! She has no interest in a little island with a few water moles and some spirits, and therefore leaves it alone. A few days ago, Mr. Giantblade sent me a message informing me of the group's location, and inviting me to join them whenever I saw fit. It's not a very nice place up in the Floating Land, however. There is far too much dirt, and those water-moles are dreadfully uncivilized." He wrinkled his nose.

"So they're on the Floating Land?" I asked urgently.

"Yes, of course! They have formed an alliance with the water-moles there. If you're trying to reach the Floating Land, take the lift in the south corner. I'm sure you'll find the camp somewhere up there."

-V-

Ogden Peake hadn't given us a very detailed description of the Floating Land, other than "dirty" and "uncivilized." I guess that those two terms could be loosely applied to the island, although I would choose worlds more like "tropical," "green" and "colorful." When I first stepped out of the tiny, overcrowded elevator, the first thing to hit me was the warm, humid air. The Celestia Base Camp had been moderately chilly- after all, it was _underwater_- and the difference in climate between the two areas was astounding. There were hundreds of tall trees with thick, lush, green leaves, and various strange and bright colored fruits grew from the branches. The sand under my boots was soft and warm, and the sun shone brightly over the small island. Overall, I thought that it was a fairly nice place- right up until my group and I were attacked by water spirits.

We were caught completely by surprise as a spray of boiling, steaming water hit us. Someone screamed- Destiny, I thought- and we all ducked. I could see the angry spirits gliding towards us, preparing another blast of water in case we tried to resist. I whipped my cutlass out of its sheathe and sprinted towards them, yelling as loudly as I could. I had read somewhere that spirits didn't like loud noises, and that they were easily distracted; maybe I could confuse them and gain one small advantage for my team, who were right behind me. We attacked the water spirits ferociously, but there were dozens of them and only a handful of us. I quickly realized that we were in trouble.

"Cassie! Can you do anything to push them back?" I called to the only Diviner in the group. She gave me a thumbs up, wheeling out from under a spirit quickly and raising her wand. The ocean at our backs roared forwards and crashed into the water spirits. "Run!" We ran.

We were fast, but the water spirits- once they recovered from their dousing- were faster than us. I summoned a bone dragon to help us, and it immediately dashed into the midst of the spirits, tearing them to pieces with its massive teeth and claws. Even with the dragon's help, I could tell that we weren't going to win this fight. One of the spirits appeared directly in front of me, and I barely had time to dodge before a massive blast of boiling water rained down on the sand where I had been standing only seconds before. I jumped sideways as a second burst poured from the spirit's hand, and I raised my sword to strike. Just then, a sword seemed to sprout from the water spirit's chest, and I stared at it in surprise. With a howl, the spirit exploded into nothing more than ocean spray and melted into the ground, revealing a tall boy with ash-blond hair and eyes that were a curious shade of blue. The stranger wore robes of gold and sky blue. He nodded to me once before turning to attack another spirit.

"Who are you?" I asked him, cutting the head off an attacking spirit.

"Mark Giantblade. Who are _you_?" He asked.

"Alexandra Firesong." I was going to say more, but three more spirits bore down on me, and I had to turn and run to avoid getting mowed over. A cheerful-looking Theurgist with dark brown hair smiled at me as she dispatched one of the spirits, and Mark took care of the second. I threw my cutlass at the third, and then cursed my poor move as another few spirits glided in my direction. A scrawny girl dressed in red and black tossed me my sword with one hand while shooting flames out of the end of her wand. "Thanks!"

"No problem," she called back, skillfully dodging a spirit and shoving her flaming wand into its back. With the help of the new arrivals, we managed to push the water spirits back a short distance.

"Follow us! Once we get into water-mole territory, the spirits will turn back!" Mark yelled to me, sheathing his sword and sprinting towards a small hill just ahead. The unfamiliar wizards raced after him, and my group followed. I stayed back a bit to make sure Cassie could keep up, and the wheelchair-bound Diviner managed just fine. She shot a Tempest spell back at the remaining spirits, who were angrily gliding after us, and sure enough, the moment we passed a pair of water mole statues, the water spirits stopped.

"Thanks for the help, Mark," I said to our rescuer. He nodded to me.

"We heard the sounds of battle from our camp, and we came to make sure that no one was in trouble. Apparently you were."

"So, you're all that's left of the Wizard City force, huh?" I looked around at the thirteen wizards. They were mainly girls, although there were four boys as well- including Mark. They wore a variety of different colors and styles. A few were dressed in Marleybonian robes, some wore clothing from Mooshu, and there was even a girl dressed in Krokotopian-style robes.

"Yeah, that's us. Like I said, I'm Mark, the leader of this group."

"Transcendent Conjurer, right?" I asked, shaking his hand. The Conjurer nodded.

"Who are you guys?"

"Reinforcements," Tyler said in a low voice, taking a few steps closer so he could be heard. "It's nice to see you have things under control, Mark." A wry grin appeared on the Archmage's face. Mark stared at him in shock.

"Ty! You're back! I thought you'd be gone another while, at least!" A blonde girl dressed in blue and beige exclaimed. The Archmage turned his intense gaze to her.

"My brother was killed- you know that, Chase. I can't let his death go unavenged. You all heard the news, right?"

"Not much news gets up here," the tiny Mooshuese-looking girl replied with a shrug. Tyler shrugged his left sleeve off to show the group of wizards the stump where his arm had once been. One of them gasped, and Mark drew in a sharp breath.

"That sucks," he said quietly. Tyler only nodded.

"Mark, these guys are reinforcements sent by Headmaster Ambrose. You already met Alexandra; she's a Transcendent Necromancer. Most of them are Transcendents, actually. That's Evan over there, that's Heather, Destiny and Erica, that's Moira …" he pointed to each person as he named them. "...And this is my cousin, Sabrina." The other group of wizards silently listened. A few of them waved and smiled at my friends, although most remained solemn.

"Nice to meet all of you," he said. "Unfortunately, we're a little low on Transcendents at the moment, so you'll be a big help." He grinned slightly. "My main helper is Steven Frostthistle, the only other Transcendent in my group." Mark indicated a tall boy dressed entirely in black. I noticed that his hair was pure white, and he was frowning as if annoyed by something. The Necromancer (or so I assumed he was) gave me a sullen nod. "Those two are Austin-" he pointed to a boy with long red hair that was pulled back into a ponytail- "...and Eric." Eric was a mischievous looking Diviner dressed entirely in violet. He gave a friendly wave.

Mark told me and my friends the name of each wizard that had remained in Celestia. The scrawny Pyromancer that I'd seen before was called Kestrel Dragonfyre, although she insisted on being called "Dragon," which was her dueling name in Dragonspyre. I found out that Chase's real name was Chelsea Ward, and that she was a Sorceress. The cheerful, brown haired Theurgist who had helped me during the fight was called Rebecca Dreamhunter. There were two other Grandmaster Theurgists in the group: a pink haired girl with cocoa brown skin named Danielle Owlcatcher, and a green haired girl from Mooshu, who was called Melissa Bluebreeze. There was one other Necromancer, Vivian Darkbloom, who was called "Mento" by her friends. Kayla Dragonstaff, a Conjurer, had been born and raised on _Earth, _of all places, and Melody Stormrider was a Pyromancer from Dragonspyre. The last girl to be introduced was Fallon "Fall" Stormbringer, a Diviner.

"Welcome to the lovely Celestia, home of evil water spirits and even more evil witches," Steven said sarcastically. I chose to ignore the other Necromancer's comment and looked at Mark.

"What can we do to help you?" I asked.

_**A/N: **__Thanks to my brother Lord Energy for allowing me to kidnap Mark, Austin, Eric and Steven from him! XD Kayla belongs to Percabeth03, Chase belongs to sock-feet-and-stirring-sand, Dragon belongs to Lexi Lopezi, Melody belongs to KokoroChan, Vivian belongs to LeAnn Haddad, Fall belongs to DeathySophia, Melissa belongs to xXSniperkingXx, Danielle Owlcatcher belongs to awesomesocks, and last but not least, Rebecca belongs to my fabulous beta reader, Rebecca Ripple :D _

_I have … I think (think) four more O.C.'s to introduce, but they'll be joining the story later. How'd I do with these 13? O_O Was it too confusing to introduce them all at the same time? I will definitely be expanding more on their characters later, but for now I just wanted to get them all in here … x)_


	9. Chapter 9: Crazy Water-Moles

_**A/N: **__So, I've got some bad news, some good news and some better news. The bad news is that I've got a very long author's note, so I apologize for that. O_o The good news is that the situation with Bat's healing will be explained in the next chapter, which is the first of the "every ten chapters" oneshots. The better news is that as of Wednesday, June 19th 2013, my school year was OVER! (That translates to "The hiatus is over XD") I was *going* to update before now, but random excuses ate the time I was going to use for writing this O_o _

_Just as a side note, Mark has a pretty massive section of dialogue in this chapter, since he has to explain everything to Alex. Because of this ridiculous amount of one person talking, I used a pretty awesome trick I learned from reading books with lots of lengthy dialogue: When there is no end quotation mark and then a new paragraph starts with a quotation mark at the beginning, that means that the same person is still talking, but it was such a gigantic speech type thing that the author decided to make it multiple paragraphs. Just for your info; I didn't want everyone to get confused when they saw that random "grammar mistake" XD _

_**In response to le reviews (there are a lot of them, so please bear with me):**_

_**BuBu Winter: **__Sure. That's fine :)_

_**NightSkyWolves: **__xp I can't STAND that place. It's very pretty, and the music is nice enough, but it doesn't make up for the ridiculous amount of time spent there.O_o_

_XD Flaming flowers are awesome XD_

_**scarletfireblaze: **__Very sorry for le confusion- which goes to anyone who was confused, by the way- and I will definitely work on spending more time describing each character so they make more sense X)_

_Yeah. The boy characters needed to be added; I ended up getting 9 female O.C.'s. O_O_

_**DawnShadowQueen: **__I'm afraid that I can't accept any more O.C.'s for this story; I already have 17, not including the new characters I made up myself O_o I can try and use Shadow in the potentially-existing sequel, though, if you'd like :) She might also be able to make a SMALL appearance in this story, but I make no promises ..._

_**SpycyAlmond: **__Lol it's fine XD The computer was fixed just a few days ago, actually, and all of my data was fine :) I'm also almost out of Celestia! :D :D :D :D Just started the Crustacean Empire yesterday x)_

_**xXSniperKingXx: **__:)_

_**Galactica Z. Stellar: **__I had that reaction in my head; does that count? ;)_

_**LexiLopezi: **_"_Welcome to Celestia, where half the population wants to eat your face." I love that! May I kidnap that phrase? XD_

_**Draco4427: **__Thank you very much! :) I'm definitely working on ways to keep all of the O.C.'s included. Speaking of O.C.'s, the situation is the same as what I told DawnShadowQueen. I'm not able to accept any more O.C.'s for Journey, since I've already got so many (and I have a few more to introduce still!) but Talon might be able to make a small appearance in this story and/or the potentially-existent-sequel ;)_

_Now, without further ado, please enjoy the ridiculously late and way too long chapter 9! :D_

Mark led me and my group along the neat dirt path and deeper into the jungle. We wove through the thick, twisted trees, moving quickly and silently to avoid unwanted attention from hostile forces- and, although I didn't know it at the time, there were many of those on the Floating Land. When we finally emerged from the thick greenery, we stood at the top of a small hill, looking down at the coastline. There was a set of stairs covered by a stone tunnel that led down to the flatter ground at the base of the hill, and sandbags lined the edge of the sand to prevent the high tide from sweeping away the small camp that sat very close by.

It wasn't anything spectacular, really; there were a handful of shabby, worn and patched up tents clustered in a circle, and there was one much larger tent off to the side. Three fire circles sat in the middle of the tent ring, and there were iron pots hanging over them from poorly constructed wooden supports. A small pile of supplies was stored behind the tents. I cringed slightly when I saw the set up. I may not have been a professional when it came to setting up a defensive camp, but I immediately identified several mistakes that the younger, less experienced wizards had made.

"You know, Mark, you might want to keep the supplies hidden a little better, at the very least. If they're all out in the open and in one place, it will be pretty easy for a random enemy to walk right up and destroy everything you have. All it would take is a well aimed explosive," I told him cautiously. The Conjurer gave me a quick glance, and then he nodded.

"I figured as much, but whenever I bring up moving the supplies, everyone else starts complaining."

"Well, if they want to live longer than a week, I suggest they learn to suck it up and deal. Hey, Tyler! You know this place pretty well, right?"

"Yeah. Why?" The one-armed wizard asked, striding towards me.

"Can you find a safe place or three for all of those supplies?" I asked, nodding towards the pile.

"Sure. I actually have a couple of ideas now, as long as they're not occupied."

"Bring someone with you and go check those places out, and then we can start moving stuff," I informed him. The Archmage nodded and left immediately, tapping Sabrina on the shoulder as he did so. I looked around at the rest of the camp as I stepped out of the small stone tunnel, determining what else needed to be done in order to make the place safe from Morganthe. "Mark," I called, "...do you have night watches organized?"

"Nothing too formal. Someone offers to stay up each night, and if they get tired, they go and wake up someone else to take their place."

"And what, exactly, is wrong with that setup?" I asked, frowning slightly as I remembered all of the times I had been ambushed on the quest to stop Malistaire.

"No idea," he said after hesitating for a minute. "_Is _there anything wrong with that?"

"Tristan," I called, naming the Dragonspyre Academy foreign exchange student. After the quest, he had returned home to finish the training that wasn't offered in Ravenwood, and strategy had been one of the younger Conjurer's best subjects.

"What's up, Alex?" Tristan asked as he approached. I informed him of the night watch system and asked him to take a look at the setup in the camp, and the Dragonspyrian grimaced as he heard what was going on. I quickly set him to work organizing a more orderly and safe night watch, which involved at least two people working together on two or three hour shifts. He also explained how the tents could be placed more strategically, and how other sandbags could be used to build a wall around the camp.

As the other wizards quickly got to work fixing up the camp to match Tristan Legendsword's tough, military-level standards, Mark led me into the larger tent, which the Conjurer called "the Planning Tent." It was where any and all maps and important documents were kept, all plans were made, and meetings were held.

"Our supplies were cut off from Wizard City when we fled up here," Mark informed me grimly as he shoved a stack of papers into a trunk to make room for me to sit down. "There's only that one small elevator from the Celestia Base Camp to the Floating Land, which makes it hard to get stuff up here. The water spirits are another problem entirely." He rolled his eyes, making it clear how he felt about the menaces.

"Any idea why they keep attacking?" I asked, but the Conjurer shrugged.

"Can't say for sure, but there are others who might know."

"Mark, what's going on here? I mean, what's _really _going on in Celestia? I've heard all the stories. I've heard the rumors and the tall tales and all that stuff, but I want to hear it from you, since you're the one who's actually here in Celestia." I leaned forward in my seat, and Mark sighed. He was silent for a moment, staring down at the desk in silence as if he was reading something. His eyes weren't moving, however, and I knew that the Transcendent was simply thinking, trying to determine what to say to me.

"I'll start at the beginning, when we first found out what had happened to Project Archmage- that's what the infiltration was called," he added quickly. "The news came at about four in the morning. Most of us were still asleep; I was up early, doing some work that Chris had told me to take care of." Mark bit his bottom lip for a minute and closed his eyes, almost like he was remembering the moment. "A messenger rushed in and told me that Project Archmage had just gone horribly wrong. He said that Chris' body had been dragged out by a barely conscious Ceren Nightchant, and Tyler had had to carry Michelle out of the fortress. They barely managed to teleport back to the Base Camp, and a few visiting wizards from Wizard City got Michelle and Ceren to the hospital, and Tyler had to bring his brother's dead body through the Spiral Door. There was panic in the Base Camp after that, and Steven, Austin, Chase, Rebecca and I made the decision to travel here as soon as possible. We figured that if Morganthe was planning on destroying the wizards in Celestia, she'd have a much harder time of it if we were all on the Floating Land.

"We got here and set up camp, and a few of us talked to the water moles and tried to form an alliance with them. Thankfully, the water-moles hate Morganthe almost as much as we do, so Chief Tupa Taua agreed pretty quickly. His people help us to find food, and they also let us use this area for our camp. In return, we help them to fight off some of the larger threats to their villages and, of course, work with the water-moles to fight Morganthe. We haven't been able to do much, unfortunately; after all, there's no way we'd do any damage to the Umbra Queen with a handful of Grandmasters and Legendaries. We really appreciate your help, Alexandra; once our two groups start working together against Morganthe, I have a feeling we'll be able to hit her pretty hard." He grinned.

"Yeah. No problem," I replied. "So, what do you and the water-moles do to work together?"

"Well, like I said, there's not a lot we've been able to do, but Tupa Taua's daughter and I have led a few successful attacks on smaller pockets of Morganthe's forces in the Survey Camp."

"Can I talk to this 'Tupa Taua' guy? I'd like to see what setup he and the other water-moles have going on."

"Sure. Follow me."

-V-

I'd seen a few water-moles before, and they weren't very intimidating creatures. Water-moles were _maybe _three or four feet tall, chunky and light brown. I generally compared them to small, fat pillows with large tails and big platypus beaks. Most water-moles wore masks to declare which tribe they belonged to; after all, tribal pride was very important to them. Most water-moles fought with spears, staffs or slingshots. If it was possible for one of those water-moles to seem regal and imposing, however, Tupa Taua was. He stood at a very respectable three feet, nine inches (which he constantly bragged about) and wore a large purple, red and white chief mask, which was bordered in massive white and black feathers. He carried a large spear with several shaman baubles and feathers dangling from the end. I was surprised; it was extremely rare that a shaman was ever promoted to chief.

"Greetings, Chief Tupa Taua," Mark said, bowing respectfully before the tiny mole. I copied my fellow wizard.

"Greetings, Mark-wizard. Who that?" The chief asked, staring at me suspiciously.

"This is Alexandra Firesong, another wizard. She's come to help us fight Morganthe."

"Ahhh! Very good have more helper. Morganthe bad-bad. We fight and tear out Morganthe-heart!" The water-mole growled angrily.

"Yes; you are a very good chief, much better than Mah-ke Moa. You'll lead us to victory," Mark said, bowing again. _You've got to be careful with him; offending Tupa Taua is a REALLY bad idea, _Mark **whispered **to me. I gave him the barest of nods.

"You meet daughter, Alexandra-wizard. You get along good-good. She know Celestia very good and guide you." Tupa Taua let off a series of high pitched chirps and squeaks which I vaguely recognized as the water-mole language. A few answering sounds came from a short distance away, and Mark grimaced.

_I should probably warn you about Tapa Tupa, _he **whispered. **_She's a little … special._

_What do you mean by _special? I **whispered **back suspiciously.

_You'll see. _I saw.

In my opinion, all water-moles looked a little strange with their large, brightly colored and feathered masks and their grass or palm leaf skirts. The water-mole that stood in front of me, however, was easily the strangest one I had ever seen. For starters, her fur was bright, obnoxiously violet purple. Her practically-fluorescent grass skirt didn't help. Like all of the other water-moles, Tapa Tupa wore a mask- but it was completely silver-blue and neatly covered her face, unlike the large, colorful masks that the other water-moles used to make themselves seem more intimidating when fighting. A blue spiked bracelet tightly encircled her wrist, and she carried a large wooden spear with a purple ribbon tied around it. She turned to face her father.

"Yes? You called?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. Tupa Taua nodded in affirmation.

"I call. You meet new wizard. Alex-wizard, this Tapa Tupa, my daughter. Tapa Tupa, this Alex-wizard."

"Nice to meet you, Alex-wizard." Tapa Tupa's English was much better than her father's, but she was clearly struggling to keep her words right. I grinned.

"Nice to meet you, too, Tapa Tupa." Mark tensed beside me, and the young water-mole narrowed her eyes and growled.

"You call me 'Esteemed Bubbleness.' I am daughter of chief, not stupid peasant water-mole," she snapped, thumping the end of her spear on the ground. Her father rolled his eyes, but I barely noticed. I was too busy staring at Tapa Tupa's mask, which had changed from it's silvery color. The mask was now one of my own face, staring back at me with shock and surprise equalling my own.

"Your mask- it just- my face- how- what-" I stammered, pointing at her mask with a shaky finger. This time, she was the one to roll her eyes.

"Hoodoo putty mask. Never see one before?" I could only shake my head dumbly.

_Be extra careful with Tapa Tupa; she's not as easy to anger as her dad is, but she's a little crazy. There was some kind of hoodoo accident years ago, _Mark informed me.

"So, we go plan Morganthe-defeat?" Tupa Taua suggested.

"Sounds good, sir. Would you mind if I go get the other three leaders?" The water-mole chief nodded, and as the Conjurer sprinted away, I slowly followed Tupa Taua to a large wooden hut. His apparently crazy daughter followed closely behind, staring at me suspiciously the entire time.

-V-

Mark returned quickly, and this time three other wizards were with him: the white-haired boy (Steven, if I remembered correctly) the Theurgist Rebecca, and Chase, the blonde girl who wore Grizzleheim-style clothing. Rebecca waved and smiled at me when she entered. Chase nodded silently, and Steven just glared. _He's not a very friendly person, is he? _I **whispered **to Rebecca. She gave a short laugh, but quickly clapped a hand over her mouth when the Necromancer in question turned his glare to her.

_Not really. I really think he has a chance to be nice if he'd just try, but Steven just kind of … well, hates everyone. None of us are sure why, except maybe for Mark, _the Theurgist **whispered **back. As the three newcomers greeted the chief and his daughter, I noticed one last person hovering outside the door.

"Hey, Erica. What's up?" I asked her, pushing the door open farther so the Thaumaturge could enter. It was a good thing I helped her, as Erica's hands were completely filled with books and notebooks.

"Thanks, Alex. Mark said that you guys were meeting with the chief and Tapa Tupa, and I asked if I could tag along. I've found out some more things about Celestia and Morganthe that you guys might find helpful," the bookworm replied, struggling to hold on to all of her books.

"Welcome, Chase-wizard, Steven-wizard and Rebecca-wizard. Who that?" Tupa Taua motioned towards Erica. "Why she bring so many book?"

"That's Erica Bluestone; she knows some stuff that we might need to know," the Conjurer replied, catching one of the books as it fell.

"So, I'll cut right to the chase," Erica began, opening the largest of her three books. "I was reading this book on Astral magic, and I read something very interesting: 'The very source of Celestian magic are three unexplainable objects known as the Sun, Moon and Star of Celestia.' Supposedly, those three things can grant overwhelmingly large amounts of power to whoever possesses them at the time."

"Sounds like something Morganthe would like to have," I muttered.

"Definitely. I've heard one or two stories about the Astral magic and the Sun, Moon and Star," Rebecca commented. "I study them a lot, you know. They're so fascinating. I love how the Celestians managed to create such powerful magic in such a short amount of time."

"Go on, Rebecca," Mark prodded her gently out of her rambling. The Theurgist shrugged.

"I'm afraid I don't know much about them. Erica, got anything else in those books of yours?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," my blue-haired friend replied, grinning. She shut the first book and picked up a second, which had a deep purple cover and spidery silver text. "After I saw that little piece about the sources of Astral magic, I did a little more research on Sun magic, Star magic and Moon magic. I found out that the sources of each school are heavily guarded within enormous labyrinthine dungeons, which are called the Stellarium, the Lunarium and the Solarium. There are hundreds, if not thousands of ancient Celestian ghosts and robot servants guarding the three magic sources, but if Morganthe put her mind to it, I'm sure that she could get her hands on them."

"In that case, she probably already has them," I grumbled. Erica's smile grew.

"Actually, she doesn't. There's a catch to those three objects: anyone with impure intentions can't actually touch the Star, Sun and Moon of Celestia. They'd turn into holograms the moment Morganthe touched one. If we can get to them before she finds a way to take them, we could restore at least a _little _power to the ancient Celestians. There are some very powerful potential allies here, most of which would very likely be willing to fight against Morganthe. She's done a lot of harm to ancient Celestian architecture and books, which is a big no-no for some of the more powerful Celestians. I'd say we've got a pretty good chance of finishing our parents' battle if we can restore the Sun, Moon and Star to their rightful places in the Trial of the Spheres."

I looked at Tupa Taua, who was nodding slowly. I looked at Steven, who seemed a little less angry than he usually did. Chase and Rebecca were both smiling. Mark sat at the table with his eyes shut, tapping his fingers together and clearly thinking hard.

"I say we go find these three objects and get that witch out of this world," he finally said, opening his eyes. He turned to me. "Alex, could you lead the group to the three dungeons?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure you want to give up leadership to me? I'm not all that good at this, you know."

"I'm sure. You've got ten times the experience when it comes to quests and fighting powerful enemies. I think we can trust you to lead us." I slowly nodded. _You're crazy, dude. _I still wasn't sure that having me lead was the right decision, but if Mark wanted me in charge ...

"In that case, let's get ourselves organized and get out of here." So began the fight for the future of Celestia- and for our lives.


	10. Chapter 10: Bat

_**A/N:**__ Here's the long-awaited explanation of Bat's healing, in which I tried to make my stupid plot idea sound as non-stupid as possible XD_

_I just realized that I forgot to credit our new friend Tapa Tupa! She is, unfortunately, not my creation; my good friend QuayJaquelinXeomaraZendaya was the genius behind the chief's daughter. XD_

_Review Responses:_

_Draco4472: No problem :) I might need to know one or two other things (well, more like a lot, if you ask anyone who's seen my O.C. submission form XD) but I can tell you what those are at a later date x)_

_HawaiianDemons: Aww, thank you! :) :) Trust me … this story shall be VERY dark XD The quest members are older (and therefore are more morbid with their threats and nasty with their language- on occasion) and the villain is a heck of a lot more sadistic and cruel than the last one XD (She might even beat Moira in the cruelty category … almost. Not quite, but almost.) I'm really happy with Tapa Tupa as a character; she belongs to my friend Quay, which I forgot to mention, and is the first non-human character that I've really played with. Quay is a very … interesting person, and her characters usually reflect that :D (And I mean that in the best way possible, Quay XD)_

_BuBu Winter: I'm glad to be back in business, that's for sure XD The water-moles are so much fun to write- especially Tapa- er, Her Esteemed Bubbleness XD_

**1 WEEK AFTER THE END OF THE DESTINY OF FIRE'S SONG**

Bat was still no better than she'd been before. Every time I tried to speak to the dragon, she would respond with a gloomy "Attack," or sometimes she wouldn't respond at all. The injury on her wing didn't look good, either; the quest hadn't helped it, of course. On occasion, my mount would be flying a little too hard, and the crude stitches I'd put in her wing would rip open, allowing sickly green blood to ooze from the open wound. I decided to speak to Tristan again and see if he would be able to help her out.

The Dragonspyrian Conjurer was in the Pet Pavilion when I finally located him, helping Tennant Wastelander and Lowe Springfield care for a group of unruly dragon hatchlings. Tristan was laughing as he wrestled with two of the tiny dragons- one red and one purple- and trying to equip each of them with a special collar. It would allow Tennant to keep tabs on them until they were purchased, and by the look of things, the pet shopkeeper would need all the help he could get to keep track of the rambunctious, newly hatched dragonlings. For a moment, I just stood a short distance away and watched. The scene was almost enough to make me smile- almost.

Tristan looked up from his task and gave me a small smile.

"Hey, Alex."

"Hey, Tristan. How are the dragons?" I nodded towards the two he was still wrestling with.

"Pretty good. Very healthy; they hatched yesterday. All of these are Sasha's dragonlings."

"She had 3 eggs?"

"Yep. This one is Ignacia-" he indicated the red dragon. "...and this is Aquaria. Their brother's name is Tamesis." The dragon in Tennant's arms was black and dark gray.

"Cool. Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you about something."

"Yeah, sure. Just let me finish up with these two."

"Want a hand?"

"Nah. I got it." The younger Conjurer skillfully slipped one collar over Aquaria's head with one hand, and then released her to put on Ignacia's collar easier. When the three dragons were once again back in their pen, playing and nipping at their new tracking devices, Tristan made his way over to the fence. "So, what's up?"

"Bat." I explained to him about my mount's problem, and he nodded.

"I think I remember you telling me about that. I should be able to help you out; mind if I come over to your place in a couple minutes?"

"That's fine with me. Is there anything special I should do to get Bat ready, or anything?" He thought carefully for a minute.

"Make sure she's calm, but aside from that, I'll take care of everything else." I nodded, and we said our goodbyes. I teleported back to my house to get ready for Tristan's visit.

-V-

When I got home, Bat was in the small stable I'd set up for her in the empty tomb next to my house. (I guess she was born to be a Necromancer's mount, because she actually seemed to like the tomb. Either that or I was rubbing off on her.) The black dragon was curled up and staring at the ground dejectedly. I noticed that her injured wing was spread beside her, but it was squished up against the side of the tomb.

"Hey, Bat," I murmured, stroking her on the nose. "Tristan's on his way here. He's going to make you feel better, okay?" The dragon gave a half hearted shrug and shifted her dull gaze to her wing. "Yeah, I know your wing is sore. He can fix it. Do you want to come out of here so-"

"That won't be necessary. I can take care of her in here," a familiar voice came from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder at Tristan, who stepped inside, carrying a large bag. "You keep your dragon in a _tomb_?" He muttered to me, setting the bag down and kneeling beside Bat.

"She _likes_ it in here!" I protested. The black dragon gave a small affirming nod. "See?"

"You Necromancers are just weird." The Conjurer gently touched Bat's shoulder. "Bat, do you mind if I take a closer look at your wing?" The dragon shrugged.

"I normally assume that means 'go ahead,'" I told him. Tristan nodded and carefully pulled the large wing into his lap and carefully inspected the wound. I noticed that the stitches had torn again.

"I don't understand why they won't stay closed," I complained. "It's not that I'm bad at sewing, or anything, but the stitches _won't_ _stay_!"

"That's because you're using the wrong kind of thread, and probably the wrong kind of needle, too."

"I use a normal sewing needle."

"Exactly." He rummaged around in his bag for a minute before producing a small box and a clear jar full of bluish cream. "Like all animals, dragons are organic life forms, but dragons are a very special kind of organic material. Most inorganic substances irritate them rather than help them."

"So … what you're saying is that by sewing up the wound-"

"You were making it worse. Doesn't help matters that this was from an Ianthine Spectre." Tristan carefully pulled out what remained of the apparently inorganic thread and tossed them away. He opened the small box and showed me what was inside. "Bone is the best material to use for needles when sewing up a dragon, and I use a special kind of thread spun out of spider silk. It actually has some healing properties, if you use it the right way. The best part is that this thread dissolves once the wound heals, so there's no need to remove the stitches."

"And what's that?" I asked, gesturing towards the jar.

"A mixture of a few different things that will suck the spectre's poison out of the wound and help close it faster." The Conjurer threaded his needle and began to patiently sew the tear in Bat's wing, speaking quietly to her whenever the dragon flinched or tried to move away. "There. That part's done." He spread the blue paste liberally over the stitches and covered it with a few leaves.

"Entirely organic, right?"

"Of course. I'll leave you some leaves and this paste. You'll need to change the bandage every morning when you get up, and make sure to put plenty of this stuff on it beforehand. Don't get too worried if you see black stuff oozing out of the wound; that'll be the spectre poison coming back out of the body."

"It's been in there that long?"

"Yeah. Spectre poison won't spread throughout a dragon's bloodstream; it will sit in the same spot for a few years, at which point the dragon would die. That makes it much easier to heal them, though."

"I guess I need to do a little more reading on dragons." I grinned wryly. "I feel like an idiot now; I didn't know any of that stuff." Tristan chuckled.

"It's not surprising; that's the kind of thing that's taught to dragon mages, and it's hard to find in books. There's only one I know of with dragon healing in it, and that book is only available in Dragonspyre."

"That would explain it. What are you going to do about the reverse whatever it's called?"

"Reverse imprinting? Well … it's not just going to go away easily, I can tell you that. It's kind of like a curse, but once I take it off, Bat will have a hard time speaking for a while- maybe a few months, maybe a few years. It's hard to tell; it really depends on the dragon."

"Honestly, I don't think that Bat will mind much if she can't speak for a while, as long as this curse thing is gone. Is that right, Bat?" The dragon nodded fiercely.

"Okay, then. Alex, could you please step outside for a minute? The spell is a carefully guarded secret among dragon mages, and my parents would skin me alive if they found out that a non-mage knew the spell."

"I guess." I gave Bat one last pat on the snout, stood and stepped outside the tomb-stable. To give Tristan as much privacy as he needed, I took a short walk around my house and then paced anxiously before the front steps while I waited for Tristan to finish.

A moment later, the Conjurer stepped outside of the tomb.

"It's done."

"Is Bat okay?"

"She's fine- sleeping at the moment, but fine. Here." He tossed me a small bag. "That's the medicine and the leaves for her wing."

"Thank you so much for the help, Tristan," I said sincerely, clutching the bag tightly. He gave me a small smile.

"No problem. I'm happy to help. If anything goes wrong, just send me a **whisper**."

"Will do."

"See you around, Alex." The younger Conjurer waved before departing through my Spiral door. I glanced inside the tomb and my mount's sleeping form. She was going to be okay.


	11. Chapter 11: Who ARE you?

_**A/N:**_ _After that short break in the plot, we're back to Celestia! Starting in this chapter, the wizards will be splitting into groups, which will hopefully help me spend more time developing each character and his/her relationships with the other characters. I'm going to pay extra attention to characterization and interactions in this story, since I didn't do a great job with that stuff in DoFS. _

_Thanks to anyone who left a review! :) :) In response to said reviews:_

_**NightSkyWolves**__: You are correct xD Also, water-moles are adorable. :D_

_**BuBuWinter**__: If you say so ... O_o_

_**DawnShadowQueen**__: Why, thank you! :) I'm not sure whether or not I mentioned this; I'm planning on doing filler chapters every ten chapters to clear up a few things I haven't explained very well in the normal plotline (such as Bat's healing, which I completely forgot about ... XD)_

_**Lewascan2**__: Why, thank you! :) Congrats on almost finishing Dragonspyre! (Unless you have by now ... xD)_

_**HawaiianDemons**__: :) :)_

_**JessicaRavenGlade:**_ _Thank you! :D I would be happy to read and review your stories sometime; I'll do that as soon as I can :)_

_**Many thanks to my fantabulous beta reader, Rebecca Ripple! :D**_

_Since I haven't done one of these in awhile, I shall make up for it by doing the best disclaimer any of you have ever seen EVER. It shall be so epic that it must be written in third person, and it will be the most epic disclaimer ever written. So there. xD_

_**DISCLAIMER**__: Firestorm walked along the sidewalk, looking completely innocent and whistling slightly off-key. When no one was looking, however, she quickly darted into a phone booth and pulled on a ninja mask and a spy suit. She then teleported to the KingsIsle headquarters (wherever the heck THOSE are) using her super awesome magical powers granted by the fact that she is in control of the keyboard and has a bizarre imagination. She darted into the building, humming the Mission Impossible theme song. Firestorm crept into the room where the Rights to Owning Wizard101 were kept and broke into the (surprisingly) unguarded case. She grabbed the Rights to Owning Wizard101 and ran from the premises- only to be met at the door by Alexandra Firesong and Moira Moonchaser. For no apparent reason, the two had decided to work together without arguing on that particular day. Firestorm squeaked in fear upon seeing the two very angry, very dangerous and very creepy Necromancers. She ran as fast as she could, but alas! The awesomeness of Firestorm's ninja mask and spy suit quickly wore off, and she tripped over a conveniently placed tree root. "Rats!" She cried, as the Rights to Owning Wizard101 went flying- right into the hands of Alex, who magically sent them back to KingsIsle using her wizard powers of awesomeness. Firestorm was then dragged off to jail, where she would spend the rest of her miserable life writing measly fan fictions, playing video games and pouting about the fact that she knew she had absolutely no life. Alexandra and Moira were hailed as heroes and laughed in Firestorm's face as she rotted away in jail- until the next time a disclaimer was needed, when Firestorm would break free to attempt to steal the Rights to Own Wizard101 again ..._

_*Dusts off hands* I bet you've never seen a disclaimer quite as long and epic as that one. *Smug smile*_

I sat in a circle with eight other people. Four were my friends, and four were newer acquaintances. We were planning how to go about finding the Star, the Sun and the Moon of Celestia- and unfortunately, no one really had any ideas.

"We could always find one of Morganthe's minions to interrogate," Evan suggested.

"Nah. Too obvious," Luke replied in a bored tone of voice. Evan shot him a chilly glare, and I rolled my eyes. I knew that Evan didn't exactly approve of my boyfriend, which in turn caused Luke's chilliness, but I got tired of their constant glaring and arguing.

"Well, the minion we end up catching probably won't know much. After all, it's not like an evil mastermind would divulge her plans to the lowest members of her army, and we're probably not gonna catch anyone more important," Erica pointed out.

"True …" the Pyromancer agreed reluctantly.

"Why don't we go and ask around, see if the locals know anything?" Destiny offered her idea in a quieter tone, but it was quickly shot down by a very grumpy looking Steven Frostthistle.

"Oh, naturally. I love the subtlety of that plan. I can see it now: About forty wizards go strolling through Celestia and start asking about this world's most important relics. Obviously not one of Morganthe's spies will notice that," he snapped sarcastically. Chase glared at the Necromancer.

"Steven," she hissed under her breath. Steven's expression didn't change much, but I could have sworn he seemed a little less angry when he glanced at her. Rebecca frowned.

"How about we just stop fighting and figure out what to do?" The Theurgist asked. Mark nodded.

"Rebecca's right; there's no way of knowing just how long we have until Morganthe attacks us again, and we have to get moving if we're going to make any progress at all. This is the best shot we've had in years; can we _please _not waste it?"

"I've got an idea." I finally spoke up, looking around at the other wizards who were going to help me lead the force to stop Morganthe. They stopped arguing and turned to face me. "If we split into groups- maybe three or four- there will be less of us in one place. If there are forty wizards asking around about the Celestian relics, that's definitely going to draw attention from Morganthe's spies. If there are only eight or so wizards asking about the relics …"

"Less obvious, draws less attention, we're less likely to be noticed by Morganthe," Luke finished, giving me a faint grin. "Sounds like a good plan." I smiled gratefully at him.

"Any idea where we should start first?" Mark asked. I shrugged.

"We should probably figure out where the Stellarium, Lunarium and Solarium are."

"I have a map," Erica offered, holding out a large sheet of paper. The nine of us crowded around it. "What if two of the groups go to the Science Center while the other two go to the Survey Camp? Those are the two closest areas to the Base Camp, not to mention the most populated."

"We can ask around a little bit and do some of the searching on our own," Destiny noted.

"That's a great idea, Erica!" Rebecca smiled at the Thaumaturge, who gave her a lopsided grin in return.

"Four groups it is. Who should lead them?"

"Definitely you and Mark," Chase said immediately. "I don't know a ton about you, Alex, but I've heard stories about your last quest. Mark's a great leader; he does a lot better at leading than the rest of us do." She grinned good-naturedly.

"Okay, and how about Tyler? He's the most powerful wizard here, and I'm guessing he at least knows the area a little bit, since he worked here for so long."

"As long as he agrees, that sounds like a good idea," Mark replied. "Chase, you should be the fourth group leader." The Sorceress looked at him in surprise.

"How come?"

"Well, you're level-headed and intelligent, along with being very organized and efficient." The Conjurer shrugged. "You're the most logical decision." Chase grinned.

"Thanks, Mark."

"No problem."

-V-

It took us a full hour to decide who would be in which group. I'd had no idea how difficult it was to put together four good, functioning groups of people that wouldn't all want to kill each other. For instance, I knew that Evan would want to be with his brother, and Lionel wouldn't want to be separated from Cassie, his best friend. I also knew that while Sabrina would want to be with Kestrel (her new best friend) and her cousin, she and Moira would kill each other if they ended up in the same group. It was a complicated process, but I had a feeling that everyone would be satisfied in the end.

I, personally, was very happy with my group. I'd ended up with Luke (naturally), Destiny, Evan, Lionel and Cassie. Rebecca Dreamhunter was also put into my group, as was Tupa Taua's crazy daughter. I would be going with Tyler's group to the Survey Camp, and his group consisted of Sabrina, Kestrel, Ashley, her younger sister Tiffany, the Conjurer named Kayla Dragonstaff, and two of Mark's good friends: Eric Wyrmblood and Austin Spiritdreamer. Chase and Mark would lead their groups to the Science Center. We announced our decision to the group, got packed up and made plans to leave the next morning for underwater Celestia.

-V-

Obviously, being attacked by crazed water spirits was not the ideal start to my morning- however, Tapa Tupa was able to explain their anger to us.

"Spirits angry 'bout statue missings," the water-mole told us. "Three Triton statues once live here; they stolen by bad-bad Morganthe. They angry until we find statues and bring back here."

"I guess we'll have to keep our eyes out for them," Destiny said sincerely.

After our morning duel with the water spirits, we piled into the elevator and traveled down to the Celestia Base Camp, where we parted ways. Chase and Mark led their groups straight across the Base Camp while Tyler and I turned to the left and continued towards a series of copper tunnels. I couldn't help but shiver as we passed through the large tunnels; it was a frightening thought that only a foot or so of copper stood between us and the entire weight of an ocean. If that thing broke … I shivered again, forcing myself to abandon the thoughts and focus on our mission.

I could hear voices echoing through the tunnels from somewhere ahead of us. As we approached, I could make out the words:

"...and you're just telling me this _now?_ Reuben, this is grave news! Any delay in fixing this problem could be catastrophic!" A Marleybonian-accented voice was saying. I stepped around the bend and came face to face with two people.

One was a German Shepherd dressed in clothing that was undoubtedly Marleybonian, but considerably less elegant and fancy than what I'd seen before. His loose fitting clothes and dark brown coat were clearly made for function rather than fashion, and he carried a large bag over his shoulder. His companion wore a large, rotund metal suit with a massive helmet, and he (or was it a she?) was completely hidden within the suit.

"Who are you?" The suited figure demanded, brandishing a large wrench. I held up my hands to show that I meant no harm.

"My name is Alexandra Firesong, and these are some of my friends. Is everything okay?"

"I am Dalton Prescott, and this is my associate, Reuben Yates. Regrettably, we have just discovered a very severe problem: Morganthe's filthy army has been tampering with the dome recently, and leaks have begun to spring." I gulped.

"Uh …do you have any idea why they might be trying to break the dome open?" I asked hesitantly, remembering what I'd been thinking only moments before.

"As a matter of fact, we do. They are attempting to force us all to surrender- although I would suspect it has something to do with you."

"Us?"

"Yes. You _are _the wizards sent by Headmaster Ambrose, correct? The ones who are working to overthrow Morganthe?"

"That's right."

"Morganthe wants nothing more than to get rid of all resistance in Celestia, so she is attempting to either destroy this place or make you wizards surrender to her."

"Never." It was Tyler who spoke up this time, glaring fiercely at Dalton Prescott. "We won't ever surrender to Morganthe, no matter what she does to us."

"Mr. Prescott, do you need any help fixing the domes?" Destiny interrupted, glaring at Tyler.

"Thank you, young wizards, but I don't believe we'll require any assistance with the repairs. If you could teach those ruffians a lesson and keep them from ruining the domes, however, I would greatly appreciate it." I glanced at Tyler, and the two of us held a silent conversation with our eyes. I was the one who finally responded.

"We can do that. Any idea where Morganthe's army is?"

"She has a large group of sharks stationed here, in the Survey Camp. If you continue along the promenade for a short while, you should see them on the lower level. There are a few ramps you can use to get there once you find their whereabouts."

"Okay. Thanks, sir." As we traveled through the large, copper tunnels (in which I noticed several leaks, and shuddered) Ashley made her way to the front of the group and began walking beside me. "What's up, Ash?"

"I'm worried about Tiffany," the Thaumaturge said after a moment, referring to her fifteen year old sister. "She was determined to come on this quest and help fight Morganthe, but she's not ready. Tiff isn't ready to battle monsters and see the horrors of war. She doesn't deserve that." I was silent for a while, trying to decide how to respond.

"I don't know what I can say, Ashley," I finally said. "No one is ever _ready _to see the kind of things we've seen. The best you can do is try to shield her from the worst of it and keep her out of the biggest battles. If it ends up being necessary, you can get her to go back to Wizard City, where it's safe." My friend shrugged half heartedly.

"If you say so." She didn't seem entirely convinced, but anything else she was going to say was drowned out by the sudden sounds of fighting. I drew my cutlass, and Ashley gripped her wand tighter. The large snowflake-crystal on the top glowed slightly, and I knew that it had grown cold to the touch. The other members of the group readied their weapons, and we ran towards the source of the sound.

When I looked over the railing of the promenade, I saw a large group of sharks- there had to be at least thirty of them, and they were all armed to the teeth- fighting two wizards- yes, two. One wore light green, and the other was dressed almost entirely in black. They seemed to be holding their own fairly well, but I knew that two wizards couldn't fight thirty sharks on their own. I jumped over the railing and ran down the ramp to help them- and I noticed Sabrina's startled expression when she looked at the boy dressed in green.

His hair was the exact same shade of green as Sabrina's- dark, almost olive green. When he turned our way, I noticed that his face looked strangely like her's, too. Their robes were identical, they fought with identical staffs, and each wore the same expression of surprise.

"You have the same staff as me," my Theurgist friend said, whacking a shark over the head with the staff in question, stunning it long enough for me to drive the point of my cutlass into the shark's stomach.

"You have the same robe as me," the unfamiliar boy replied, raising an eyebrow at Sabrina as he delivered two fast, sharp blows to another shark's wrist, knocking a spear out of its hand.

"I didn't know anyone else knew that move," Sabrina said in wonder as the other Theurgist attacked the shark fiercely with his staff.

"I made it up."

"No, _I _made it up!"

"You can't possibly have made up that move, because _I _made up that move!"

"Who _are _you?" Sabrina finally yelled in exasperation.

"Adrian Jadeleaf!"

_**A/N: **__I betcha weren't expecting that, were you? ;D_


	12. Chapter 12: To Trust or Not to Trust

_**A/N: **__So, here's the plan for this story (at least as far ahead as I have planned*.) Up until chapter 20 will be Celestia, and Celestia will also run over into the next 10 chapters. I have plans for Celestia to last about 25 chapters, since there's so much plot material and I have so many characters to balance out. Zafaria will be cut kind of short, since I don't have much planned for it besides Mirror Lake, and so it should last somewhere from 10 to 15 chapters. Avalon will be the last world in JoFS, and since I've got such an overload of plot stuff going on there (including something very evil ... xD) Avalon will run for about 20-25 chapters. I'm not even going to *try* setting a deadline for when I'll have this done, because knowing my school, my writing time will vaporize as I get deeper into the school year. T_T_T_

_*****__Any and all plans formulated by Firestorm Nauralagos are subject to random changes at any time between now and the time this story is finished- just as a warning. ;)_

_Thanks very much to anyone who reviewed! :) :) In response ..._

_**NightSkyWolves:**_ _xD I'm glad you liked it! XD_

_**DawnShadowQueen**__: Heeheehee ... Melikes! XD_

_**LexiLopezi**__: So true, so true. :)_

_**BuBuWinter**__: O_o How late did you end up reading this?!_

_**APR1**__: Yeah; sorry about the slow-ish updates. I've had a busy schedule (not to mention the fact that I'm lazy XD) so my updating schedule is a little bit sporadic. I *did* mention before that every tenth chapter will be a oneshot ... didn't I? I might have forgotten to do that._

_**Lewascan2**__: Indeed! The Necromancer is a character who will play a semi-important role later in the story ;) And just for the record, there are 42 characters in this story, not including Nolan Stormgate and Morganthe. O_O I will definitely work harder on organizing the newer O.C.'s, though, and I'll try to make it a little less complicated. :)_

_**anthonysupericewizard**__: Oh my glob? That's a new one. XD I might have to steal it from you ... (kidding! Stealing is wrong; I only ever borrow without permission. XD)_

_**Draco4472**__: Her mask is silver and really shiny, and it's basically just a mold of her face. However, when she's talking to someone, the mask turns into a copy of that person's face- for example, when Tapa Tupa was talking to Alex, the mask became Alex's face._

_**Guest**__: Right now x) I don't really have an updating schedule, unfortunately, since I not only have a pretty busy schedule, I also have to try and fit all 42 characters into the story without messing up the plot or anything O_o (It's harder than it sounds! xP) I will update as frequently as I can, though :)_

_**Thanks to my absolutely epic beta reader, Rebecca Ripple! :D :D**_

_And now, please enjoy the chapter! :)_

Naturally, anyone within earshot (and it was hard _not _to hear the two Theurgists arguing, even with the sounds of battle) was shocked, but we were still surrounded in sharks. I quickly yelled a plan to Tyler, who gave a short nod. He and I both created dueling circles, and Rebecca created a third.

"Evan, you start one, too," I called. The Pyromancer gave me a thumbs up. "Now everyone, get into a circle!" The plan had worked perfectly. Every one of the sharks had been dragged into a dueling circle. The other wizards and I knew how to fight with a sword or a staff if necessary, but in a magical duel, the Pisceans wouldn't stand a chance. I quickly sorted through my deck of cards as Sabrina and the two newcomers stepped into my dueling circle.

"What do you mean, your last name is Jadeleaf? That isn't possible; what, are you a spy or something?" The hotheaded Theurgist hissed, jabbing a card with her staff and activating a Lifeblade.

"Oh, so now my last name is illegal? I don't see what the issue is!" Adrian snapped back, playing the same card as Sabrina.

"Come on, you really think I'm gonna fall for that?"

"Fall for _what_?"

"Seriously? You think I don't know that Morganthe knows my name?"

"What _is _your name?!"

"_Sabrina _Jadeleaf, you idiot!" Adrian went visibly pale.

"You- you're my _sister?_"

"It can't be possible… Alex, this has to be a trick from Morganthe … doesn't it?" My friend turned to me, sounding almost desperate to disprove Adrian's suggestion. I shrugged and nodded towards the dueling circle.

"Sabrina, you and Adrian just played the exact same card." It was true; two Garden Gnomes popped out of the ground, one right after another. "You can't necessarily see it, but your faces are disturbingly similar. You both have green hair, you're wearing the same type of clothing and using the same staff, you even have the same mount and pet as him. I won't deny that it's kind of weird, but I don't think that even Morganthe is strong enough to make someone think almost exactly the way you do."

"So that means…" she began.

"We're twins," Adrian finished, playing a sprite on the other Necromancer, whose health had gone down after an orthrus spell from one of the sharks.

"There's no way … my mom would have told me if I had a brother!" Sabrina sputtered.

"According to the people who raised me, I was found in the possession of a group of Morganthe's minions when I was only a few months old," her supposed twin informed her.

"Your mom left when you were only seven, right? It's possible that she didn't know how to explain that kind of thing to a seven year old- and besides, maybe she didn't want to think about it," I suggested as I cast a scarecrow on the sharks. My death blade and the traps activated, sucking the last of the life out of the sharks.

"True …" Sabrina agreed reluctantly as we made our way to the edge of the rapidly disappearing dueling circle. "So, you're from Marleybone?" Adrian's accent was a little weird; I couldn't place it, but apparently Sabrina could.

"Yes. I was raised there by the wizards who rescued me from Morganthe, but I studied at Dragonspyre Academy." That would explain the strangely mixed accent, a combination between Marleybonian and Dragonspyrian.

"Why the Academy?" I asked.

"I toured both Ravenwood and Dragonspyre Academy, and I decided that I wanted to learn more than just magic. It's come in very handy now that I'm working alone in Celestia." Adrian twirled his staff and grinned.

"_Almost _alone," the other Necromancer interrupted, coming to stand beside him.

"Er … yes, this is my partner, Fallon Spiritsword." Sabrina's brother grimaced slightly. "I was assigned to Celestia field work about four months ago, and I ran into her here."

"I take it you've heard about the Archmage incident, then?"

"Yes. A tragedy." He seemed almost casual when talking about it, and I could tell that Sabrina was irritated.

"You wouldn't know, since you just found out that we're family, but one of your cousins was the Archmage that died."

"Oh, you mean Christopher Mythdream?"

"Yeah. His twin brother Tyler is here, helping us fight Morganthe." My friend nodded towards the second dueling circle, where Tyler was directing a Medusa spell towards the final shark.

"Do you know him well?"

"I live with him and his mom," she replied shortly. "My- our mom was taken prisoner by Morganthe years ago, and so I live with my- OUR Aunt Barbara and Tyler. Ellie is off in Avalon; she's a photographic journalist or artist or something like that." As she and Adrian continued their discussion, I turned to Fallon.

"So, you're from Dragonspyre Academy, too, huh? I don't remember ever seeing you in Ravenwood," I remarked. She nodded.

"Yes, although I, too, am from Marleybone." Her accent was much heavier than Adrian's, and it wasn't mixed with traces of a Dragonspyrian accent.

"How come you're in Celestia, then?" She frowned slightly.

"I'm looking for someone." I wanted to ask her more about who she was looking for, but I was interrupted as the other duels finished up and the rest of the group joined the four of us.

"So, this is the lost cousin?" Tyler folded his arms and stared down at Adrian, who was at least five inches shorter than his older cousin. "My mom used to talk about you; I didn't expect that you'd look so much like Sabrina."

"Well, of course my twin brother looks- wait, Auntie … _Auntie knew about him?!" _ She stared at her cousin in shock. He shrugged.

"Yeah. Of course she did. Mom was Aunt Marieta's midwife; did you know that? She was there when you two were born, and she was the one that Morganthe's henchmen knocked unconscious in order to take Adrian right out of the cradle."

"Why didn't she ever tell me that I _had a twin brother?!" _

"It's like Alex said: explaining that kind of thing to a kid is pretty hard to do. I only heard about it when I was fifteen, and I'm pretty sure my mom told me on accident."

"So everyone in that house except me knew that I had a twin," Sabrina said slowly.

"I guess so … Anyways, how do we know we can trust him, that he hasn't fallen in with Morganthe?" Tyler nudged Adrian with his staff. The Theurgist glared at him.

"I'd rather die than let her have me," he snapped.

"Get Kestrel," I told Sabrina. She nodded and went off in search of the amnesiac Necromancer. I wondered how her memory was doing as we waited for her to arrive. One of Moira's spells to ensure that Kestrel couldn't run off had involved erasing her memory, and although the spell was reversible, it was taking a long time for her to remember her past.

"What's 'Kestrel?'" Adrian asked suspiciously.

"Not what. Who," Tyler corrected him. "Kestrel can tell if a person's lying almost as well as a spell could, which is fortunate, since no one here knows the spell."

The Necromancer in question appeared a moment later with Sabrina right behind her.

"Whatcha need, Alex?" She asked, tilting her head slightly in that birdlike way of hers.

"Kestrel, can you watch him and see if he's lying?" I asked her, nodding towards Adrian. "Tyler doesn't believe that he's on our side."

"I am!" Sabrina's twin protested, and Kestrel stared unblinkingly at him for a moment.

"Ask him again," she ordered, not breaking eye contact with Adrian.

"Adrian Jadeleaf, are you working for Morganthe in any way?" Tyler asked.

"No! I'm not! I hate that evil, twisted monstrosity, and I would give anything to see her dead!" He insisted. Kestrel nodded.

"He's telling the truth," she informed me, turning away from the Theurgist. The process was repeated with Fallon, who was also vehemently against Morganthe. Our next question (without the use of our human lie detector) was whether or not they knew about the Sun, Moon and Star of Celestia.

"I've heard of them," Fallon informed us. "Not much, though- only a few old myths, really."

"That was my assignment from the Academy," Adrian interrupted. "I was supposed to investigate the myths and see if there's any truth to them."

"Well, we can tell you that they're real-"

"I know. Working with Fallon, I found the entrance to the Stellarium."

"It's in the District of the Stars." The other wizards erupted into cheers. Finally, we'd found out _something _useful after nearly three weeks in Celestia! "There's only one problem," Fallon continued, and immediately we went silent. No one wanted to hear the word "problem."

"Yes… the District of the Stars is the main base for Morganthe's Piscean Guard," Adrian said, frowning. "That place is swarming with sharks- there are probably close to three hundred, if I've counted correctly." The silence lasted for a while longer. All of us were musing over Adrian's words. If there were three hundred Piscean soldiers guarding the entrance to the Stellarium…

"Well, we're screwed," someone announced in a dull tone. That about summed it up.


	13. Chapter 13: Luke Shadowstorm

_**A/N: **__Here's the next chapter! :D Interestingly enough, I also added the revised version of DoFS chapter 13 recently … _

_In response to reviews …_

_**APR1: **__Thanks very much, but I must correct you on one thing: Marieta is spelled with one "T" in this story. x) I kind of get how I'm "zooming through time," but I don't want to write out every single solitary moment of the characters' lives, since that would be boring and would take forever. I'm sorry if I'm confusing you, and I can try and slow down a little, but please remember that I'm doing my best given the circumstances._

_**BuBuWinter: **__I'd rather we share; after all, I need them, too, in order to write the rest of the Firesong Saga ;D_

_**LexiLopezi: **__Kestrel is just really, really good at telling when someone is lying. It's her "thing," you could say- Emma Swann from Once Upon a Time is the same way. XD_

_**NightSkyWolves: **__Yeah, I don't think I put quite enough plot material in this chapter or the last one; there will be more soon. Do not fear._

_Not only long … Avalon will also be the most fun [for me] and the darkest! Mwahaha … xD In response to your last review of Tempest Flame: Yes. I am most definitely evil, as you will see in Avalon. You know someone is evil (in terms of writing, at least) when that person giggles strangely at the thought of torturing/killing/maiming/annoying/beating up/messing with the minds of characters … XD_

_**Thanks very muchly to my wonderful beta reader, Rebecca Ripple! :)**_

_**One last thing: **__There is a __**poll **__on my __**profile **__regarding my stories on __**hiatus. **__I've just finished _Tempest Flame: Tale of the Swiftriver_, so I currently only have one story running. I would like your opinions on which other story should come off hiatus next. There are 6 options. It would be very much appreciated if you would vote ;)_

We spent days planning what to do- eight, to be exact. Luke and I did a lot of the planning on our own, since most of the others were busy setting up the tents within the Celestia Base Camp, getting supplies and scouting out the District of the Stars. It was every bit as dangerous as Adrian and Fallon had warned, and then some. There were hundreds of sharks in the District. The patrols and night watches were absolutely immaculate and perfectly organized. There were guard towers every ten feet or so. There was no way we'd be getting into the Stellarium alive- and if we did, we definitely wouldn't be coming back out again.

At the moment, we didn't know whether or not Morganthe knew about the Stellarium right in her backyard, but we assumed that she did. It just made things easier to overplan than to under-plan.

As it turned out, my boyfriend was one of several strategical masters in our group of wizards. There was Kestrel, too, and Fallon. Tapa Tupa proved invaluable when we needed information about the District's layout, since she'd gone swimming there many times. The Pisceans had never bothered with one solitary water-mole, least of all with the chief's crazy daughter.

"So, we still need to figure out how to get past all those guards," I said, peering down at the map in front of me. "Everything else will be worthless if they catch us at the gate."

"I think I have an idea; I'm gonna go talk to Adrian and Fallon. I'll be right back." Luke stood abruptly and headed off in search of the two wizards. I watched his receding form for a moment, and then turned back to the map. The planning tent was completely empty, and since most of the other wizards were off doing some task or another, the entire camp seemed eerily silent. I went back to thinking about the fairly significant problem we had, but the emptiness made it hard to concentrate. I found my thoughts turning to the person who had just left a moment before.

Luke Shadowstorm had been my boyfriend for almost a year, and yet I still couldn't quite figure him out. In public, he would distance himself, and there wouldn't be a drop of emotion on his face. When we were alone together, it was a different story entirely, but even then, it was like he wasn't entirely there with me. There was something about Luke that made me uneasy sometimes, but I couldn't put a finger on it.

I knew that he was uncomfortable when it came to public displays of affection. Someone actually asked us if we were siblings once. Luke's reaction to that was pretty amusing, but that was one of my only memories of him showing any expression other than mild amusement- at least around other people. As the quest to stop Morganthe went on, his distance only increased.

I knew that some people considered ours a dysfunctional relationship. I didn't agree- not much, anyways- but there were those little things I couldn't help feeling put off about, like how Luke hadn't asked me on a date to my face since our first. He always sent a card attached to a black rose, which was sweet the first time, but had become less so since then.

My boyfriend also seemed to be afraid of touching (aside from occasionally holding hands) in public. I often compared him to one of the horrifyingly proper, slightly stuck-up Marleybonians. It was practically comical to see his expression when Luke saw other couples making out. It looked like he'd swallowed something sour. Quite honestly, there were times when I couldn't even tell if he loved me- it wasn't like he'd ever told me. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I was in love with Luke Shadowstorm. I could only hope that he felt the same way about me.

"Thinking about _him _again?" The voice came from a short distance off, and I looked up. Evan was standing in the doorway to the tent. He was frowning.

"Yeah, why?" I asked defensively. It was no secret that my best friend (although he was more of a brother) disapproved of my boyfriend; he, too, had picked up on those few things that bugged me, but unlike me, Evan blew them out of proportion.

"Alex, that guy's bad news. I've heard stuff about him, stuff that is really not good, and I don't trust him."

"I know!" I snapped. "I know you don't trust him! I'm fully aware of what you think about my boyfriend, and you're entitled to your opinion, but this is _my life!_ I can take care of myself; I'm a big girl now." My last sentence was heavy with sarcasm, which I knew that Evan detected. The Pyromancer sighed and sat down next to me, running a hand through his hair in exasperation.

"I'm not saying that I don't trust your judgement, Alex, but do you even know him?"

"Of course I do!"

"I mean, do you know about his past?" I hesitated, which he took to mean that I didn't. "I've heard stuff, Alex, and some people think that Luke is using you."

"People like you?" I asked venomously.

"Like me, like Destiny, like anyone with _eyes_! The creep rarely smiles. He doesn't really laugh, just sort of chuckles darkly. Hell, he doesn't even touch you when the two of you are out in public!"

"This is a damn war, Evan Starblade. What did you expect Luke to do, propose to me while we're fighting Morganthe's army? Kiss me while we watch someone _die?!_ People get hurt in wars. People die. This isn't a time for romance."

"I was referring to the time _before_ the war started, _Alexandra Firesong_, such as the last _year _the two of you have been dating!"

"Gah! I'm sick of your crap about how my boyfriend is some cold-hearted jerk!" I flew to my feet and stormed out of the tent in a rage.

"Where are you going?!"

"For a damn walk! Is that a problem?" I yelled over my shoulder. I was too angry to watch where I was going clearly, and I walked straight into Luke.

"Whoa! Hey, Alex, are you okay?" He asked, placing a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

"Huh? Oh … yeah, I'm fine. Just a little annoyed."

"Really."

"Evan and I had a disagreement, that's all. Did you find Adrian and Fallon?" He nodded.

"They think my idea might work. I'm heading over to the District to check it out one more time before I finalize the idea; wanna come?"

"Sure." I shrugged. "Not like I have anything better to do." I whistled for Bat, and Luke pulled his folded-up swiftshadow wings from his backpack. The two of us set off at a swift pace for the District of the Stars, home of the Stellarium.

-V-

The trip wasn't long, maybe ten minutes at the most. When we arrived, Luke and I paused for a moment at a safe distance from the Piscean-filled District. The two of us stared up at the massive stone walls, admiring the incredible architecture of the place but also remembering the seriousness of our mission. We were there for espionage, not sight-seeing.

"How close do you need to get in order to see what you need to?" I whispered to my boyfriend.

"Not much," he murmured in my ear. "I need to see how many guards there are and how frequently they change."

"Every five hours, and never the same ones. I have no idea how many there are," I replied quietly. He gave me a small grin.

"Not bad, for someone untrained in spying."

"Next you'll be telling me that you secretly attended Dragonspyre Academy," I joked. Luke didn't reply, but rather began to creep closer to the front gate of the District of the Stars.

"Enjoying the view?" A bored voice called out. I spun around, pulling my cutlass out of its sheath in the blink of an eye. Luke had his sword out, too, and was pointing it straight at the girl in front of us.

"Who are you?" I snapped, glaring at the strange newcomer. She leaned up against a crumbling pillar with her arms crossed. Short, shaggy black hair covered one eye, obscuring it from view. Her visible eye, which was slate gray, inspected us through a half-closed eyelid. Her high collared, long sleeved robes were pitch black and violet purple, which contrasted sharply with her unnaturally pale skin. One corner of her mouth turned up slightly as I spoke.

"You'll know, soon enough." With a small laugh, the girl disappeared in a cloud of stormy clouds and electricity.

_A Diviner, huh? _I thought.

"We'd better get back to camp and tell the others," Luke decided, shrugging his wings back on. "I had time to count the guards." I nodded in agreement.

"I don't like this … I have a feeling she's not on our side."

"Definitely not."


	14. Chapter 14: Dark Weather

_**A/N:**_ _So, last chapter was really just a big emotion dump. The action will be coming up soon, though. Chapter 14 will be planning stuff, and in Chapter 15, Alex and co. will enter ... dun dun DUNNNNN- the Stellarium! xD_

_**Review Responses:**_

_**NightSkyWolves**__: *Takes a bow* Why thank you. xD Never fear! The mystery girl will return in this chapter! (Kinda sorta.)_

_**BuBuWinter**__: Indeed- and so fun to mess around with! xD Just for the record, though, you clearly haven't seen That Piece of Filth that I will not Name for Fear of Burning Holes Through my Tongue and your Brain. (AKA an old LotR fan fic of mine O_O) That thing was so bad I give myself a headache just by thinking its name O_O_O_O_

_**DeathySophia**__: Ha, don't worry, it's not a problem XD I know what you mean; those darned Useful Uses of Time always get in the way of things that are more fun, like writing fan fiction ;)_

_Oyes. Luke will be very important in upcoming chapters- ESPECIALLY IN AVALON! XD_

_Who do you think she is? (At least, who did you think before reading le chapter, since she's explained here? ;D)_

_**DawnShadowQueen**__: You'll find out. *Evil grin* His mysterious and apparently not-so-nice past will be revealed sometime either in Zafaria... or in AVALON! XD (In case you couldn't tell, I'm excited about writing that part. xD)_

_**Lewascan2: **__Heeheehee … xD_

_The Diviner's a shifty one, isn't she? x) I've got plans for her… a great many plans. xD As for Luke… what is his deal, anyways? All shall be revealed eventually… (I'm not gonna say it, but it starts with an "A" XD)_

_**Oceanclaw007: **__It doesn't sound bad at all. XD (I almost stared crying when I wrote it… T_T_T) I might be able to do a flashback with Malistaire, although I might be saving that one for Azteca, which is in the sequel. (Morganthe does something there that I am going to have a lot of fun with… xD)_

Once all of the other wizards had returned to camp for the night, Luke and I called them together to discuss our plans- and also the strange girl we'd seen outside the District of the Stars. All four groups were gathered together, chatting amongst themselves and getting better acquainted while waiting for my boyfriend to show up. Luke had gone to grab a few things from the planning tent, and he was running a few minutes behind.

"Sorry," his voice called from a short distance away. "I couldn't find the map." He triumphantly held up the rolled piece of paper, and I rolled my eyes.

"So, what's up, Alex? Did you guys find out what you needed to?" Mark asked.

"Yeah… but we also found something else."

"Some_one, _rather," Luke amended.

"What he said." I nodded towards Luke. "There was this girl… She showed up out of nowhere, said almost nothing and then disappeared."

"What did she say?"

"Well, first she asked if we were enjoying the view- I guess in reference to the District of the Stars- and when Alex asked who she was, the girl just told us that we'd find out." My boyfriend frowned.

"There was something about her," I continued. "She was… I dunno, creepy, I guess- Sabrina, you _jerk_, quit laughing! Yes, she was creepier than we are!" I glared at the Theurgist. "I guess you could say that her presence was unnerving. There's something not quite right about the whole thing, and Luke and I are pretty sure she isn't on our side."

"Could you describe her?" Moira asked, sounding surprised. I shrugged.

"Sure. Short black hair, gray eyes, about my height. She was wearing black and purple robes, and she was looking at us like we were the most boring things on the planet." Moira swore.

"I know exactly who that is," she growled, "...and I can tell you that Briony Darkweather is absolutely not on your side- not unless you can pay her more than Morganthe."

"How do _you _know her?" Luke asked, sounding surprised.

"They probably met at Villains-R-Us," Kestrel muttered. Tyler chuckled, and Moira glared at the other Necromancer.

"Very funny, Forgetful. For your _information, _Briony worked for Malistaire. I never found out what happened to her; I left before she did. It's likely that she ran for the Spiral Door the second Malistaire started losing. She's a vain little bitch who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'loyalty.' If you pay her well enough, she'll fight on your side, but Briony's the biggest coward this world will ever see, not to mention a pretty damn horrible excuse for a wizard." I could tell that Moira didn't really like this "Briony Darkweather."

"So you think that Morganthe's paying her?" Rebecca tried to clarify, and the albino girl rolled her eyes.

"No, Rambler, Briony's stalking Alex and Luke because she wants to come to tea! Make sure you have extra lemon slices." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Quit wasting time, Moira," I snapped. I was already on the verge of throwing something because of my argument with Evan earlier, and Moira's sarcasm was doing the Cucaracha on my last nerve.

"Whatever, Firesong. I'm guessing you'll want to know her battle strategies, her strengths, and all that. I even know her tea preference." She smirked. "Extra sour."

-V-

After Moira had quit bugging me, she actually told us something useful. "Like I said, Briony is crap at Divination. I'm honestly surprised that girl made it to Legendary, although she's probably more powerful now. Her real strength is in dagger fighting, knife throwing and poison."

"Poison?" Erica seemed surprised.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure she was actually the Plague Oni's apprentice for a while after she ran away from home. She's a fast runner and climber. She fights with stealth and trickery; in a fistfight, she'd run. Like I said before, Briony studied with the Plague Oni. She's freakishly good with plants- any kind, really, which is why she did so well in Theurgy. I want to say she's a chemist, too, but I could be mistaken. I never found out what she did in her lab."

"If she's good with poison, and she's working with someone as powerful as Morganthe… Moira, I think that Briony might have had something to do with poisoning Arthas," Erica said slowly. The albino glared at her darkly.

"I figured that much out, Glasses Girl. If it wasn't Briony, it was Morganthe- so by extension, it's the same person. Alex, you'd better hunt her down; even if Briony's a coward, she's really, really dangerous because of her poison skills." I hesitated for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of chasing down this new enemy.

"No. We can't waste time looking for one of Morganthe's just about limitless allies. We have to wait until we find out more about Briony's intentions, and we've gotta focus on what we're doing: getting the Sun, Moon and Star back to the Trial of the Spheres. That's the most important thing we can do. If we can shut her down in Celestia, that's one less area she has control over." Moira seemed like she was about to launch into a full argument with me, but thought better of it and reluctantly nodded.

"I guess you're right … but Briony only works for the winning side, you know. She proved herself invaluable to Malistaire, and she knew a lot about his plans and all that. If we catch her, Briony could be a valuable source of information."

"No," I repeated firmly. "We keep doing what we've been doing. Keep an eye out for her if you want, but don't do anything unless Briony openly threatens you." After I'd finished my argument with Moira, Luke began explaining his ideas to the group. He told them about his findings regarding the Stellarium and the District of the Stars: guard rotations, numbers, anything that could be useful.

"I think that our best plan is to sneak in using polymorphs," my boyfriend finally said. "Are any of you guys good with Moon magic?"

"Oh, I loved studying the Astral magic!" Rebecca exclaimed. "Moon wasn't my favorite, but I know some stuff about it."

"I know a little," Evan added.

"Hey, Alex?" Ashley called. I headed over to where she and Tiffany were using a small piece of rubble as a bench.

"What's up?" I asked as Luke, Evan and Rebecca worked on their polymorphing strategy.

"I want Tiffany to stay out of this battle; she's too inexperienced. I don't think she's ready for something this big," the Thaumaturge admitted, speaking in a low tone and possibly trying to keep her younger sister from hearing. It didn't work, and Tiffany glared at her.

"I'm not staying here. Michelle's hurt, and I'm going to help destroy the one who hurt her," the tiny, vulnerable looking girl protested. I hesitated before replying.

"Tiffany… you haven't seen war, and you're too young to see war. Maybe your sister is right-"

"No." Her response was firm. "I won't let you attack Morganthe without me." I glanced helplessly towards Ashley, who sighed.

"If you're really sure…"

"I am."

"Then you can go, if Alex agrees." I shrugged.

"Whatever, kid. If you think you're ready to take on the Piscean Guard, feel free to tag along." The little 14 year old's smile was small as she thanked me. I had a feeling that she, too, had doubts about going into the Stellarium, but Tiffany wasn't admitting anything.

-V-

Groups Three and Four headed off to continue their search early the next morning. My group and Group Two gathered in a circle again to continue planning our attack on the Stellarium. Rebecca and Evan continued their discussion of mass polymorphing versus doing the spells one at a time. Sabrina was arguing with Moira about whatever sarcastic comment the Necromancer had made that time. As a matter of fact, it seemed like most of the group members were talking, arguing or laughing. I glanced helplessly at Luke, wondering how we were going to get them back on task, when suddenly Kestrel solved the problem for me.

"I remember!" She exclaimed loudly, straightening up. Everyone stared at her.

"Remember… what?" I asked cautiously. Kestrel smiled widely.

"I remember where I went to school!"

"Oh."

"Yeah! I went to Dragonspyre Academy- that's why it felt so familiar when we were walking through the ruins, and that's why I haven't even felt like I might know Ravenwood."

"Do you remember all the stuff you learned there, too?"

"Well, I never actually forgot any of that, silly." She grinned at Tyler, who had made the comment. "Luke, I might have an idea for you. What if we cause a diversion…" I smiled to myself, watching as Kestrel dove into the discussion in a way she never had before. I was glad that she was regaining her memory. It boosted everyone's spirits to know that something good could happen during a war. I just hoped that her apparent luck would rub off on the rest of us. After all, we were heading to the Stellarium the next morning.


	15. Chapter 15: The Stellarium

_**A/N:**_ _And now ... may I present, LE STELLARIUM CHAPTER xD In which we fight some stuff, break some stuff and find out more about Miss Darkweather... *Evil chuckle*_

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! :D :D In response..._

_**NightSkyWolves:**_ _Indeed ... if Moira doesn't like someone, that's NEVER a good sign. O_o_

_:O It was your birthday? HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIGHTSKYWOLVES! *Gives cake*_

_**DeathySophia**__: OH RIGHT I forgot I had sent her to you ... :} I ended up changing her School from Death to Storm because I didn't want every single one of the main villains to be Death. ;)_

_**BubuAgain**__: Aww, thanks! :) :) Briony will be very important later on in the story ... especially in CELESTIA. XD (Hah. I bet you thought I was going to say "Avalon," didn't you? XD She will be important there, too, though. XD)_

_**Lewascan2**__: Since when do things ever go according to plan for those poor wizards? XD That would be no fun at all._

_**DawnShadowQueen**__: It's so much fun, being cruel XD I might hint at his past a little bit here and there, but you won't necessarily know that I'm hinting at it ... And yes, stalking is a must. :3_

_**Two more announcements**__: The first is that I now have a website for random pictures relating to my fan fictions (most of which are pictures I found on Google, but I'll probably replace them with drawn pictures as I get around to said drawing.) The web address is firestormnauralagos . webs . com (no spaces there) and if you've gotten to the right place, you should see Squishy 8) there to greet you._

_Second announcement:_ _**THIS IS IMPORTANT, VERY MUCH SO IN FACT.**_ _I am most likely going to have to change this story's rating to T. Although there isn't much nasty stuff yet (nothing worse than in DoFS, anyways) *it is going to get worse.* The following things will be present at some point in this story:_

_Torture (nothing vivid, just somewhat vague mentions of it.)_

_Death (Like I said before, nothing super vivid, but the emotional stuff afterwards will be pretty nasty)_

_Language (They're older, obviously, and they're going through a lot worse than they were before. I still don't *like* putting it in, per say, and it won't be frequent, but it will be there.)_

_Emotional stuff (Lots of it, most of which will be negative. Very, very, VERY negative. One of the main things I'm doing with this story is playing heavily with the emotions of the group members, trying to push them to their breaking points.)_

_Severe injuries (Only a few, and once again there will be nothing vivid)_

_I looked up the ratings the other day, and all of that ^ falls under the T rated stuff. What do you guys think: Leave it or change it to T? (I'm mainly worried about younger readers seeing that it's only K+ and thinking "It probably won't be much worse than DoFS." Trust me when I say it will be worse.)_

Everyone was awake early on the day we entered the Stellarium. The camp was a flurry of activity as every wizard hurried around, changing into battle gear, sharpening their weapons (if they had one, that is) shuffling their cards and packing anything they thought they'd need into their backpacks. Inside my tent, I quickly pulled on my black and red armor and threw on my cape. I shoved my deck of cards into my pocket, picked up my cutlass and grabbed my backpack before heading outside.

I had told everyone to pack at least a little bit of food and water, since there was no telling how long we might be in the Stellarium. If we ended up getting closed inside, it might take a few days for us to safely reopen the exit. The other wizards were hard at work getting prepared- the ones who were going, that is. My group and Group 2 were working together once again, and while we attempted to find the Star of Celestia, Groups 3 and 4 were continuing their search for the other two dungeons. Moira had decided to come along with us instead, since she was almost certain that Briony would be waiting for us in the District of the Stars.

"_It's exactly the sort of thing she'd do,_" she had informed me. I had agreed, but warned her to stay away from Sabrina and Kestrel. The two of them still hated Moira and remained unwilling to accept her. My group had two other new members as well: Adrian Jadeleaf and Fallon Spiritsword.

"I've never really liked this outfit," Rebecca was saying as I got closer to where a few of the others were standing. "I feel like it makes me look fat." She frowned. Lionel shook his head.

"You don't look fat. You look very pretty," the Sorcerer informed her. I noted with amusement that Cassie frowned and glared at Rebecca as she smiled and thanked Lionel. I glanced at Evan to see if he'd noticed. He had, and seemed … worried? I made a mental note to ask him about that later and tapped Rebecca on the shoulder.

"Are you and Evan ready to do the polymorphs?" I asked her.

"_Polymorphs_? We have to turn into _sharks_? Why?" Kayla complained. I frowned at her.

"If Evan and Rebecca think it'll work, we're gonna at least try it," I told her shortly. The Conjurer rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." Evan and Rebecca began weaving colored light to form a giant moon spell. The Pyromancer quickly pulled a card out of his pocket, and both he and Rebecca tapped it. A pale silver and blue light washed over us, and I had to squint as it got brighter. When I could see clearly again, I was surrounded in sharks. I looked down at my hands, which had become the hands of a Piscean.

"Weird …"

"I don't like! Weird-weird! I'm not a shark! Bad-bad yucky EVIL sharks!" I immediately recognized Tapa Tupa's words. I looked around for her, but she wasn't that hard to find: the water-mole chieftain's daughter had become a bright purple shark. I could help letting out a small chuckle as the water-mole-turned-shark shook her head and flapped her arms comically. Several of the others were trying to hide their grins, too- with the exception of Eric Wyrmblood, that is. The Diviner was roaring with laughter. Tapa Tupa's fist immediately collided with his face.

"Hey! Quit it, Tapa Tupa," I snapped.

"_EsteemedBubbleness_!"

"Shut it and back off! We can't be fighting when we get to the District of the Stars!" I gave her a dirty look, which she easily returned- but at least she shut up. We set off at as quick a pace as we could, hoping to reach the gates just before the guard change. The guards would be tired and ready to take a break, so they'd be easier to convince that we belonged there- at least, we hoped so.

-V-

The guards weren't buying it for a second- that we were supposed to be there, that is. The polymorph was working perfectly, and although the guards were a little confused by a violet purple shark, they were completely fooled. The head guard was convinced that we belonged in a different area of Celestia, though. We argued for a few minutes, and all the while, I had my fingers crossed that the new guards wouldn't arrive before we got in. Finally, _Kayla _of all people took initiative, stepped forwards and glared at the guards.

"Now, you idiots listen up," she snapped. "We have traveled halfway across Celestia to get here. We are exhausted, we are hungry and we are sick of walking. Queen Morganthe herself ordered that we come here to defend this stupid place, and I expect you to _get the Hell out of our way and let us in_!" She glared darkly at them, and the head guard gulped. Finally, he nodded, turned and barked a few orders to the other guards. They quickly cleared out of the way, and we marched past them. I elbowed Tapa Tupa, who was muttering under her breath about "Bad-bad shark nasties" and focused on remembering the way to the Stellarium's entrance. Erica had marked it on the map back in the camp, but I wouldn't be able to check said map now that we were inside the District. Time was of the essence; our polymorph spells would only last ten more minutes, if the timer on my wrist was correct.

Thankfully, the place was fairly easy to find; it was a massive place at the very center of the District. The building showed clear signs of age, such as rusting metal and crumbling brick, but the architecture was incredible, and the blue and purple marble was in nearly perfect condition. A gigantic star made of pure gold hung over the entrance. We'd been pretty stupid for thinking that Morganthe _wouldn't _have found this place.

"Erica would have a field day," I muttered to Destiny, who chuckled. There were two more guards posted at the entrance to the Stellarium. These wouldn't be quite as easy to convince that we belonged, and we were quickly running out of time. My timer was down to two minutes.

"I got this," Eric muttered as he pushed past me to get up front. "Hey, big guys, wassup?" he asked, grinning and holding out his hand for a high five. The two guards glared stonily at him.

"What is your purpose?" one of them snapped.

"Am I not allowed to visit?" The Diviner scoffed as if offended. "Say, you guys _do _know that there's a wizard hiding right over there, right?" He pointed towards a large rock. I watched as Fallon snuck over behind it and pulled off her timer wristwatch, which instantly deactivated her polymorph.

"What?" the shark roared, and the two of them barreled over to the rock. Fallon stepped out from behind it and swung her scythe at the sharks, killing one of them instantly.

"Go, quick!" she called. Two of the others pulled open the doors, and the rest of us ran in. A second later, Fallon joined us. "Shut the door," she ordered breathlessly while leaning on her scythe. "They'll have heard that, and reinforcements will be on the way." I nodded, and we got to work pushing the heavy doors shut. We had just barely gotten them closed when the polymorph spell wore off completely.

"That was weird," Cassie commented, shuddering. "I kept reaching down to push my wheelchair forwards, but it wasn't there." Rebecca seemed confused.

"Wait … did you have to walk, then? How'd that work, if you're in a wheelchair?"

"The polymorph changed my chair so it came along, but I had to actually walk," the young Diviner responded. There was a strange coldness in her voice that I didn't usually associate with the friendly Cassie Swiftriver. I ignored it and focused on the task at hand: finding the Star of Celestia. If Erica's map was correct, the Stellarium wasn't a huge place, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. I pulled the map out of my backpack and allowed myself a moment to study it.

"There's two hallways leading off of this room," I announced. "We want to take the left hallway, which should lead us directly to the Star Chamber." I folded the map and tucked it back into my bag.

"There are enemies here," Fallon warned as she wiped the blade of her scythe clean. "Lots of them." The other Necromancer pointed towards the hallway, and sure enough, I could see several groups of sharks patrolling it.

"They travel in groups of four," Kestrel noted, tilting her head slightly to the side. "We could split up, too, and then each attack one of the groups."

"It'd be better if we _don't _have to fight them all, but it will probably be inevitable," I decided. Luke poked my shoulder.

"What if one group of four starts a magic duel to distract the sharks and the rest of us move forwards? Then, once the first duel ends, another group of four can attack another few sharks." I nodded.

"Sounds good." I ended up in the first distraction group with Destiny, Evan and Tapa Tupa (who was still grumbling about the polymorph spell.) The water-mole seemed excited at the prospect of a duel, even if it was a magical one, and she was eagerly spinning her spear.

"Let's go!" She said impatiently, pointing the spear point towards the hallway. The four of us quickly ambushed four sharks, and since we were the ones to begin the magic duel, our side was chosen to go first. I looked over my cards and played one of my favorite Star spells: Fortify. The blue aura glowed brightly, distracting the sharks long enough for my friends to slip by unnoticed. Tapa Tupa was saying something to Destiny, but I couldn't hear over the roar of the Meteor Strike Evan had cast, draining about a quarter of the sharks' health. Destiny cast a Stormblade on the water mole, who then cast a Tempest. The sharks retaliated by cheating, pooling their pips to play an Earthquake. The ground rumbled and shook, nearly tossing all four of us to the floor, but it ended just as quickly. I winced as the spell tossed a boulder at me, but that didn't stop me from casting a Skeletal Pirate on the first shark.

"I didn't know you still had that in your deck," Evan commented incredulously as he passed.

"I didn't know you still used _Meteor Strike,"_ I retorted.

"Hey, it's useful!"

"Whatever you say." Destiny finished the battle two rounds later when she cast Forest Lord, and the moment the dueling circle disappeared, we ran after the others.

-V-

Rebecca, Lionel, Eric and Kayla were involved in a second duel when we finally caught up. The others were waiting at the foot of a nearby staircase, pressed up against the walls and doing their best to remain hidden. Evan, Destiny, Tapa Tupa and I joined them to wait for the other four, who didn't take long. Kayla and Eric seemed to be doing most of the work, since Lionel had taken a bad hit and was unconscious. Rebecca was busy healing him while Eric and Kayla worked together to take out the four sharks. The Conjurer attacked them with an Earthquake after Eric gave her a Spirit Blade (I assumed that his Secondary School was Balance) waited as Kayla played a Stormblade on him, and then the Diviner finished the battle by playing Sirens. Eric held out a hand for a high five, which Kayla stared at disdainfully for a moment. She reluctantly tapped her hand to his, and they hurried over to join us. Lionel revived after Rebecca cast one more healing spell on him, and he slowly made his way to the stairs, wobbling and pressing a hand to his head.

"I have a feeling the Star's up there," Adrian said almost sarcastically, nodding towards the stairs. There was a nearly blinding silvery light flowing down the tunnel.

"Come on," I said in a low voice, starting up the stairs. The glow got brighter as I continued, and when I finally reached the large upper floor, I had to squint in order to see properly. The entire room was made of pure white marble, and silver stars were painted on the walls and ceiling. The brilliant silver light reflected off of every surface, making the room shine with an almost ethereal glow. In the very center was the Star of Celestia itself, which shone so brightly I couldn't look straight at it. As I got closer, the glow receded, allowing me to see it clearly.

The Star was surprisingly small, for something so powerful. It probably would have fit easily in my palm, and it looked basically like a small silver and white rock. The Star was shaped like (obviously) a star. It danced on its pedestal, suspended almost a foot off the actual surface of the white table and floating in a beam of light. The Star gave off sparks as it danced.

"Wow … it's even more beautiful than I thought it would be," Rebecca said, staring in awe at the Star. The other wizards filed into the room, and we stood around the pedestal for a moment, just watching the Star dance. The door slammed shut behind us, breaking the spell we'd all been under- but as I tried to move, I found that I was stuck. My feet wouldn't move, my arms were glued to my side, and I couldn't move my head.

"What's going on?" Ashley yelled, trying in vain to move from where she was standing. I looked down. Wherever someone was standing, a glowing black dot had appeared.

"It's a trap," I realized.

"Shit," Moira swore. "I forgot to warn you guys … Briony's also really, _really _good with traps."


	16. Chapter 16: Rescue Mission

_**A/N: **__Thanks to all of you for your input on the "T rating" thing. :) I think what I'm going to do is put it at T, although for the most part I'll try and keep things more towards the K+ side of T. If there's a particularly nasty scene, I'll be sure to put up a warning at the beginning, and as for the cursing, I'll do my best to keep it to a minimum. I can probably do something like this:_

_Moira swore. "I forgot to warn you guys ... Briony's really good with traps."_

_**In response to le reviews:**_

_**BuBuWinter**__: Yeah, the duels are not my strong point ... you do a WAY better job with that :) Like I said, I'm going to put it at T, just to be safe, and I'll do like you suggested with the warnings :)_

_**NightSkyWolves**__: xD_

_**DawnShadowQueen**__: Yeah, I'll be more careful about that in the future; sorry! O_o_

_**Lewascan2**__: Oh yes; Briony is very, very important and will continue to be very, very important xD I'm definitely not accepting any more O.C.'s for Journey O_O I'm having enough trouble with 42 ;) However, I will *eventually* be accepting O.C.'s for story 3 in the Firesong Saga, and you can submit your character then :) :)_

_**To anyone who's interested**__, I've started a co-op fic with BuBuWinter. :) It's published on my account and is called "Anything You can Do I can Do Better." Also, you should read "I Will Never Back Down" by DawnShadowQueen :D_

We all struggled to get free, to reach our wands, _anything- _but to no avail. Suddenly, I heard a familiar squeak, and Cassie's wheelchair rolled forwards a few inches. Everyone stared at her. The young Diviner's expression was a mixture of surprise and relief as she rolled her chair forwards a little more.

"I think my wheelchair disrupts the magic, or something like that," she exclaimed. This time when she tried to move her arms, she managed to move even farther forward. Cassie spun her chair in a few circles, laughing happily.

"Uh, Cassie, I hate to interrupt," I began, "...but we're kinda stuck still." I glanced down at my unresponsive limbs and frowned.

"Oh… right," the Diviner said sheepishly. "I'll go and get the other groups as fast as I can." She reached behind her chair and pulled her short violet wand from her backpack. Cassie tapped the silver globe on the top, and electricity flickered to life around it. "I'll be right back," she informed us as she reached down and drew an invisible magic "X" on the ground to mark her location. With a flash of lightning and the faint rumble of thunder, she and her chair disappeared- just in time, thank the Titans, because only seconds after the younger girl had gone, I heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

_Hurry, Cassie._

-V-

Cassie had always believed that a manual wheelchair was better than a magically powered one- after all, her arm strength was better than most of the people she knew, since she was always pushing her chair around. However, there were times, it seemed, that a magically powered wheelchair would be better… times when she was traveling through the Celestia Base Camp as quickly as she could, trying to find Group Three and Group Four to get them to save her friends, for instance. She might have had extremely strong arms, but even still, she got tired after fifteen minutes of wheeling through the Base Camp as fast as she could. The Diviner sent frantic **whispers **to anyone whose name she could remember at the time- there were a lot of new names and faces, after all, and she hadn't had more than a few weeks to learn all thirty-odd names. She had never been good with names; she was better with faces.

"Hello? Is there anyone here?" Cassie shouted as she pushed her chair into the camp that was currently home to the wizards. "Hello?" She looked around desperately- there had to be _somebody _here!

"Oh, hello there!" A cheerful voice called from behind her. The young Diviner spun her chair around and saw a well-dressed Marleybonian standing in front of her. "You must be one of those nice wizards! I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting; my name is Ogden Peake! What's yours?"

"Cassie," she replied, startled by Ogden's sudden appearance. "Uh- excuse me, Mr. Peake, but have you seen any other wizards around? Some of my friends are in trouble and I really need to find them."

"Other wizards?" He seemed confused for a moment. "Oh, do you mean that friendly Giantblade chap? Yes, he and a few others left for Stormriven earlier today."

"Is there anyone closer than Stormriven?" She asked desperately. Stormriven was over three hours away by dragonback! If she had to wheel all the way there, it could take _days_!

"Hmmm… ah, yes! There was another lovely girl here just a few minutes ago… Chase, I believe her name was. Odd name for a girl, really-"

"Chase? Chase Ward? Where did she go?"

"To speak to Edith Benchley, if I remember correctly. She was very nice, you know; she wanted to know if I knew anything about the Lunarium, but I've never even heard of-"

"Thanks very much, Mr. Peake!" Cassie was wheeling away before he even finished speaking.

-V-

Sure enough, the Sorceress from Grizzleheim was chatting with the Marleybonian engineer, and her six other group members were standing nearby. "Chase!" Cassie yelled as she wheeled closer, exhausted from her attempts to find the other wizards but unwilling to abandon Alex and the others. Chase looked her way, and she was clearly surprised to see the wheelchair-bound Diviner approaching.

"Hey, Cassie. What's up?" She asked.

"Chase- it's bad. Briony ambushed us … there was a trap, and I think my chair messed it up, so I just barely got away, and all the others are still trapped there-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down!" She held up her hands. "Let me make sure I got this: There was a trap?" Chase waited for Cassie's nod of affirmation. "Briony set it?"

"Yeah."

"All the others are stuck."

"Mm-hm."

"I'm guessing you need our help, then."

"Please."

"Okay. Got a location marked?" Cassie nodded. "Good. Hey, guys! Come over here!" They came closer, and Chase explained the situation.

"I'll kick her butt," Dragon decided, cracking her knuckles and then drawing her katana.

"_We_ will kick her butt," Chase corrected, giving her a small grin. "Hands in." They all joined hands, and Cassie placed her own small hand on top. She gripped her wand tightly and drew an "X" in the air, then tapped it. A second later, they were gone.

-V-

"Well, if it isn't the famous Alexandra Firesong," Briony said in a bored tone, walking back and forth in front of me. An entire horde of Pisceans stood at attention behind her. There had to be at least thirty of them. "You don't look like much." The Diviner prodded my shoulder. "You're putting on weight, you know. I've heard that leading your friends into certain death is bad for the metabolism." The corner of her mouth turned up ever so slightly as I glared at her. She stuck her hand into a small bag at her waist, and I flinched as she pulled out- a frozen lemon slice? I noticed that cold steam was escaping the bag; it was enchanted. Briony licked the end of her lemon slice, and then bit off the end to suck on.

"What are you doing here, you disgusting piece of dragon crap?" Moira snapped. The black-haired girl quickly located the speaker and strolled closer.

"Moira Moonchaser, isn't it? I remember you from when we worked for Malistaire. If I remember correctly, you were the one who stuck around even after he was _clearly _losing to _her_." She gestured towards me with her lemon slice. "Loyalty." Briony scoffed. "Loyalty is for the idiots of the world," she stated, walking back towards me. "Only the smart ones actually know when it's time to quit and find a new partner, and only the _exceptionally _smart ones know to make their partners pay for their allegiance."

"Most people like to call that 'cowardice,' Briony Darkweather," I informed her, and then spat in her face. The Diviner retaliated by slapping me.

"You talk too much," she hissed, wiping the spit off her face and drawing a short dagger from her belt. I could see the sickly purple poison oozing from the blade. "How about we make your death slow, huh? What do you think about that? We can start with the tongue; that definitely needs to go." Just as she was about to stab me, a burst of electricity startled her. Eight wizards appeared in the room; Cassie had returned with Chase and her group. They all kept one hand on Cassie's wheelchair and wielded their weapons with their free hands, which kept the trap from holding them in place. Steven took one look at the circles that held us in place and immediately stabbed one with his long, black iron spear. The circle flickered once and then disappeared, leaving Sabrina free. She gave the Necromancer an almost nice smile, and he responded with an almost non-glare. The other wizards quickly attacked the other circles, and Cassie jabbed the Star pedestal with her wand. Electricity surged through it as she used a Wild Bolt card, and the pedestal exploded. It had been a fake- and also the generator for Briony's magic trap. We were all freed almost immediately, and I drew my cutlass, glaring darkly at the evil Diviner in front of me. She glanced behind her at the Pisceans.

"Trust me, _coward_," I spat, "...we can _easily _take out you and your big, scary sharks." Briony looked back at me, looked down at my cutlass, and swallowed. She took three steps backwards and disappeared in a big, dark gray storm cloud.

"You know, Alex," Luke began as he drew his sword, "...you are ridiculously sexy when you're mad." I shoved him.

"Just focus on _them_, you weirdo," I retorted, switching my attention back to the sharks and pulling my deck of cards from my pocket.

"Say, boss, d'ya think we should kill 'em?" One of the sharks asked, looking towards a particularly large and particularly ugly gray shark. He paused for a moment, thinking over the question. I rolled my eyes, drew the Necromancy symbol and activated the card in my hand. An enormous bone dragon slithered out of the card, stretched its violet plasma wings and glanced towards me, waiting for instruction. I pointed the tip of my sword towards the sharks.

"Kill them," I said shortly. Its white-hot eyes flashed, and the dragon charged towards our enemies. It was joined a moment later by a leviathan and a colossus, and seconds later, the rest of us followed the magical creatures.

"Hey, Ashley!" Austin called as he sent a cloud of sand blowing through the room. "I'd say your colossus is hot, but… well, he isn't, really. Cool, though."

"Shut up and fight, Austin," the Thaumaturge replied, rolling her eyes and casting a Blizzard. Against the combined efforts of 25 wizards and three magical creatures, the sharks didn't stand a chance, and the last one fell only a minute later.

"So… where's the _real _Star?" Fallon wondered, glancing towards where the fake one had been. I looked down at the floor, at the strange, intricate patterns that had been drawn there. Something told me to touch it, so I did, hesitantly running my hand along the smooth surface. My fingers hit a small bump, and I stared at it. There was a hidden handle there, which I gripped and pulled with all my strength. A large piece of floor slid away, and the real Star of Celestia slowly rose out of the gap. I cautiously touched it. The Star remained solid. I took it from where it was suspended in the air and turned to face the others.

"Here's the real Star." I held it out for them to see.

"We've gotta find somewhere safe to keep it while we're looking for the Moon and the Sun," Evan finally said.

"Erica will know. Let's get back to the Survey Camp and see how Mr. Prescott's doing, and then go find Erica," I decided.

-V-

When we returned, the Survey Camp was bustling with activity. More round-suited people like Reuben Yates were patrolling the area, inspecting the walls and ceilings of the tunnels, and there were a few Marleybonian engineers present as well.

"Oh, you're back!" A familiar voice called from behind us. I turned. Dalton Prescott was coming closer, smiling broadly. "Those Piscean miscreants haven't bothered us in the slightest since you left! However did you do it?"

"We fought 'em off," Tyler replied shortly, shrugging and fiddling with his Balance amulet.

"Well, you did a fine job of it! Say, did you have any luck with what you were looking for?" I pulled the Star out of my pocket and showed it to him. He stared. "My word… is that actually the Star of Celestia?"

"Yeah." Mr. Prescott seemed like he was about to reply, but a shout from one of the tunnels interrupted him.

"Mr. Prescott, sir!" One of the rotund workers was hurrying closer as fast as his (her?) suit would let him. "The leaks, sir … they're gone! All of them!"

"_All_ of them, you say?" Mr. Prescott stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Miss Firesong, you don't think-"

"I think it might have." I looked down at my pocket, where had just placed the Star. "This thing has a lot more power than we thought."


	17. Chapter 17: Hunting

_**A/N:**_ _There's going to be some drama in this chapter. That's all I'm gonna say. xD (Don't worry, though, there'll be action, too xD)_

_**WARNINGS**__: Some insulting going on, and someone might almost make a very unkind remark about Heather Rosegem, but there won't be anything really T-ish. My failed attempt at writing romance (again) might give you a headache. And ... that's it. x3_

_Thanks to those of you that reviewed! :) :) In response …_

_**BuBuWinter: **__xD I'm glad you were amused by that; it amused me while I was writing it XD_

_**NightSkyWolves: **__You're a fan of Superchick? XD XD XD *Hugs* They're one of my favorite bands ever! :D :D What's your favorite song?_

_I believe I know what word you're thinking of, and I have called Briony that on many occasions … :P_

_**Lewascan: **__Why, yes. Yes there is ;) And since I'm feeling nice today, I'll even tell you what worlds it will take place in: Azteca and the final world in the Morganthe arc (and if there *still* isn't a new world by the time I get to that point in the story, I'm using Aquila. :P)_

_**Thanks to my extraordinary beta, Rebecca Ripple! :D**_

_I would like to add that a new character will appear in this chapter; Kiera belongs to NightSkyWolves :) Let me know how I did with her characterization! :)_

When we arrived back in the Celestia Base Camp, the fourth group of wizards were waiting for us. Mark took a few steps closer and held out his hand. In it sat a glowing bluish-white object shaped like a moon.

"You found the Lunarium?" I asked. Mark nodded.

"The entrance was super hidden inside of Stormriven, and it was a pain to get around Morganthe's forces, but she doesn't know where the Lunarium is. There wasn't a single shark inside, and we got _this _pretty easily." He nodded to the Moon that sat in the palm of his hand.

"We weren't quite as lucky," I began, reaching into my pocket, "...but we still got the Star." I held it out for him to see. Erica came to take a closer look.

"Wow… it's beautiful," she breathed. "I can practically _see _how strong this thing is."

"Seriously. All we did was walk into the Survey Camp, and suddenly all the dome leaks were fixed," I replied with a grin. "If these can't help defeat Morganthe, I don't know what will!" Erica smiled.

"I figured out where we should keep them, by the way," she informed me, answering my unasked question. "There's this huge, old astrolabe just sitting on the ground over towards the ruined palace. No one bothers with it since it doesn't seem to do anything, and there are conveniently three hidden compartments: one under a painting of each artifact. If we hide them there, Morganthe won't even suspect it. They'll be hidden in plain sight."

"Sounds good. Can you put them there?"

"Sure thing." She took the Moon and the Star, then headed off towards the ruined Celestian palace.

"So… how are we gonna do this?" I mused, looking around at the other wizards. We couldn't all go looking for the Solarium; that would attract too much attention. "Why don't two of the groups start searching for information about Morganthe? You know, her battle strategies, her movements, anything we might be able to use."

"Sounds good," Mark decided. "Tyler, can you and your group come with me?" Groups Two and Four set off immediately, leaving me with Group Three. Chase was, of course, the leader of that group, and she had been working with Danielle, Dragon, Steven, Heather, Nolan and Melissa.

"Any idea where we should start?" Chase asked me.

"Most people start at the beginning," Steven spoke up sarcastically. The Sorceress shot him a glare, and he at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed of himself. "I was being serious!"

"Just shut up, Sven," Chase replied, rolling her eyes. I noted the name she'd called him and reminded myself to ask her about it later. It seemed that I had a lot of things to ask a lot of different people…

"W-why don't we g-go and talk t-to Edith again?" Heather suggested. "She s-s-seems to know a l-lot about Celestia."

"Like we haven't bothered her enough already?" Steven replied.

"Don't talk to my girlfriend like that," Nolan snapped. Despite Heather's obvious embarrassment regarding Steven's comment, I noticed that the corners of her lips turned up slightly as Nolan defended her. "I think it's a great idea."

"You would; you'd like anyone who'd let you-"

"Sven Jokull Frostthistle!" Chase snapped. _So calling him "Sven" _hadn't _been an accident. _"I suggest that you don't finish that sentence." The Necromancer went silent for a moment, looking straight past Chase into the distance. Finally he turned and shot Nolan a glare that was only a few degrees short of frozen rock solid. Steven (or Sven) slunk to the back of the group to sulk by himself. "Sorry… he's… uh…"

"No need." I held up a hand. "If he feels like explaining why he's being a jerk even though he doesn't know us, he can do it himself. Why don't we all split up, go look for information about the Solarium and _cool off_?" The Sorceress nodded.

"I'll go deal with him," she muttered.

"Cassie and Lionel, come with me. The rest of you, figure out what you're doing and get going."

-V-

As I'd expected, Cassie was unnaturally cool towards Lionel. He tried several times to speak to her, but the wheelchair-bound girl gave him clipped responses and annoyed glances each time.

"What did I do this time?" The Sorcerer finally asked, clearly exasperated. Cassie paused for a moment, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Do you really think that Rebecca is pretty?" She finally asked. Lionel seemed surprised.

"Uh… well… yeah, I guess, because she _is_," he replied slowly.

"Oh. Okay." Cassie turned her wheelchair and began following me again.

"Cassie, wait." He touched her shoulder, and I saw her frown.

"What?" Lionel started to say something, paused, and tried to speak again.

"I- er- Rebecca's pretty, but Cassie … I think you're beautiful." He turned bright red and immediately stepped away; the younger boy was clearly embarrassed- but Cassie smiled at him, a much brighter smile than I'd seen on her face in a very long time. I paused and looked around at the wreckage that I stood in the middle of. We were just outside the old Celestian palace.

"So… I guess we found it, huh?" I stated, staring up at the glowing archway in front of me. There was a large (albeit slightly rusted) bronze sun stuck onto the highest part of the arch, and in the center of the sun was one word: Solarium.

"Talk about hiding in plain sight," Cassie laughed. "That was easy!" I frowned slightly.

"If we found it this easily, Morganthe has almost definitely found it. Let's go get the others and check this place out."

-V-

A few minutes later, we were all gathered in front of the Solarium.

"How much do you want to bet there's a trap waiting for us?" Luke muttered.

"That's not even worth betting on. There's no _way _Briony hasn't found this," I retorted. "Come on. Let's go." I drew my cutlass and tapped the sun. The archway glowed, and a large blue portal appeared in front of us. "I figured that would happen." The others readied their weapons, and I stepped through the portal.

"Well, well, well. Fancy seeing _you _here." The familiar, bored sounding voice drawled, reaching my ears before I could even see clearly again. Sure enough, Briony Darkweather stood in front of me, leaning up against the massive gold and bronze gates of the Solarium. Beside her stood another girl, probably about the same age. The new girl's black hair fell to her waist, and she wore a black and emerald green dress. In her hand was a scythe similar to Fallon's, but with a blade entirely made of emerald (or some similar clear green material).

"Yeah. Briony didn't run before; she's too cool to fight _you _losers," she added to Briony's comment.

"Shut up, Keira," the Diviner in question snapped. The other girl, "Keira," immediately shut her mouth and took a step back. "Anyways… where was I?"

"What are you doing here, Briony?" I snapped, gripping the handle of my cutlass a little tighter.

"We already know what you're planning," she replied, giving the tiniest of smirks and shifting her weight to the other foot. "Tsk, tsk, Miss Firesong; you really could have thought of a better plan." Danielle, the Theurgist from Group Three, scoffed at the taunt.

"You probably have no idea what we're planning to do," she replied. Briony raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, don't we?"

"Do you?" Danielle shot back. Keira shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, no, but-"

"Of course we know," Briony snapped, "...and we've already told Morganthe everything." She shot Keira an angry glare.

"Geez, Briony, that's the most emotion I think I've ever seen you express," I spat. "Take them."

"With pleasure," Dragon said, smiling darkly and stroking her sword. The tiny Dragonspyrian girl sprinted straight towards the Diviner.

"Dragon-" I took a step forwards, meaning to go help the younger girl, but Chase put out an arm to block me.

"She's not _just _a P.V.P warlord," the Sorceress informed me as Fallon went after Keira. "Dragon is a professional pit fighter in Dragonspyre. What's that saying- never judge a book by it's cover? Just watch. You'd just get in her way." I watched as the small Pyromancer dodged Briony's long knife, twisted to avoid the poisoned dagger in her other hand and punched the Diviner in the stomach. With two brutally hard kicks- one to her wrist and the other to the back of her left knee- Briony collapsed in a heap, and Dragon landed one last blow to the back of her head, rendering her opponent unconscious. Fallon didn't take much longer to knock Keira's scythe out of her hands, and the Necromancer immediately surrendered after tripping and falling backwards.

_Mark, _I **whispered. **_Can you bring your group to the Base Camp? We've got a few prisoners for you._

_Who? _The reply came immediately.

_Briony and one of her friends. Meet us in the ruins outside the castle. _Five minutes later, the two prisoners were bound tightly and on their way back to a cell Edith had rigged up for us out of a hollow, overturned statue head and some chain link fencing. With a guard like Moira Moonchaser, who had volunteered to watch them, there was no way Briony or Keira would be escaping any time soon.

-V-

The Solarium wasn't nearly as treacherous or as difficult to get through as the Stellarium had been, and after a short skirmish with a dozen or so puffer fish (they insisted that they were called "Lophians," but I've never considered _puffer fish _to be intimidating) we found the chamber where the Sun was kept. It was hidden in a secret wall panel, much like the one in the Stellarium, but Melissa found it quickly and pocketed the glowing gold and bronze Sun of Celestia. The third artifact was in our hands… Now all we had to do was find their rightful home.


End file.
